First Recorded Fatality In a Self-Driving Car

There have been two high profile accidents regarding Tesla’s new self-driving cars. One happened in Montana, in which the driver claims that the car essentially drove itself off the road into a guard rail. The second had a tragic result, when the car went underneath the trailer of a semi. It’s been reported that the driver may very well have been watching Harry Potter at the time. These accidents are sad examples of what worries all motorists when it comes to self-driving cars.

It’s been visualized in many television shows and movies set in the future. Being able to watch a movie or take a nap while your car is in motion would be the pinnacle of motor achievement. Believe it or not, there are actually millions of them on the road already. Self-braking and self-parallel parking cars exist, but in terms of the cars from Minority Report, these might still be a ways off from mass production; although not as far as we might think. And this is clearly a good thing, as the technology needs time to catch up to the innovative minds behind the wheel (pun absolutely intended). But what effects could the self-driving car have on insurance, lawsuits and accident rates?

Insurance for Self-Driving Cars

Not lost on the majority of people is what will happen with car insurance once the self-driving ones become commonplace. It’s an accepted fact that the sheer quantity of accidents will be greatly reduced once these cars are implemented. However, as highlighted above, accidents would still happen. And when they do, what will the protocol be? For starters, you are technically not driving the car, so how would we determine who is at fault?

There is much speculation as to what will happen to the insurance industry, and it seems the only thing for certain is that no one really knows for sure. It could eliminate the need entirely, or just create different/new needs. For example, a 2014 RAND study suggests that manufacturers and suppliers will need to take responsibility for accidents once autonomous cars become the norm. Given the chance that a system might fail on a self-driving car, product liability will be of increasing importance in the next 15 years. Manufacturers will have to decrease costs in other areas of insurance, such as natural disasters, in order to compensate for the rising costs in automobiles. This is something consumers would have to be prepared for as well.

Looking into liability coverage a bit further, it’s well understood that this is the most expensive part of our car insurance. Paying for damage is but a mere footnote compared to any injury or hospital bill costs we might have to pay to the other driver if we are determined to be the at-fault party. But what if the thing at fault is a computer? Well, that’s what insurance companies are trying to figure out. It makes sense that liability in this case would be placed on the manufacturer, as stated above. There are so many things for insurers and manufacturers to consider when it comes to liability. For example, an automated car means an automated route; manufacturers could program their cars to avoid areas they deem to have high crime, or are deemed otherwise risky.

Self-driving car lawsuits

Piggybacking off insurance liability, how will lawsuits involving self-driving cars be handled? According to many car accident lawyers, given the information above, the manufacturer under many circumstances would be held responsible. However, this could make lawsuits a much more tedious process, considering that a victim or the victim’s family would now be suing a major corporation rather than another individual. This concept would have personal injury lawyers jumping at the chance, given the potential for a large settlement if the system failed and there was no driver error. If a computer fails, which does happen from time to time, then a host of companies and people could be held liable for damages.

Of course, the potential for this could inspire the government on state and federal levels to spend more money on road and bridge maintenance in an effort to decrease the chances of an accident. This would not be a bad thing, and the improved infrastructure would be a big help if there is a system failure and the driver has to revert to manual mode, which is a scenario that has already been extensively studied. It could take a driver up to 40 seconds to regain full control of the vehicle though, especially if they are not expecting the system to fail.

Perhaps the greatest variance in these studies is how long it will take for the majority of cars on the road are self-driving ones. One says that there will be 10 million driverless cars on the road by 2020. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says 4.5 million by 2030. The Highway Loss Data Institute says it could take three decades before 95 percent of cars have crash avoidance systems that come standard. Either way, our grandchildren will likely be able to read their email on their commute to work.

May 2018 Update

In March of 2018, a self-driving Uber in Arizona struck and killed a pedestrian as she walked her bike across the street. Although there was an emergency back-up driver behind the wheel, they failed to see the pedestrian in time and apply the brake. As opposed to other autonomous car related fatalities up to this point, in this example, the driver or occupant of the vehicle was not the one killed. A recent federal investigation found that the emergency braking system was disabled and the driver was not warned of the impending crash, even though the vehicle had identified the hazard about six seconds before colliding with the pedestrian.

In a case like this where the car did not operate as intended, it seems clear that fault would rest with Uber and their software. If the surviving family members of the pedestrian decide to file a wrongful death lawsuit and it goes to trial, it will be interesting to see the legal precedent set for these types of cases in the future.

*Featured Image by BP63Vincent, via Wikimedia Commons