Driverless Cars are Here. So Are Driverless Car Accidents.

Posted on August 18, 2019 | Written By: iadminlaw

For the last several years, fully autonomous automobiles have been the Holy Grail of the automotive industry. And it’s not just car manufacturers who have wanted to see self-driving cars populate the streets. Rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft have also had a stake in this exciting new development.

Now at last, self-driving automobiles are here, taking to the streets of a few U.S. states—
including California. Other states are sure to legalize self-driving cars in due time. The revolution is here; there’s no going back now.

And while autonomous vehicles have brought with them a number of perks and conveniences, they have also brought some drawbacks—including safety concerns.

Yes, there have already been some documented cases of accidents involving self-driving cars—
and this despite so many assurances that these vehicles would effectively be foolproof.

And with these accidents there come some thorny legal questions. The most important of them all: Who’s to blame if you get injured in a car accident…and the car that hit you didn’t have a driver?

What the Law Says—and What it Doesn’t.

There are a few points to understand here, and the first is that truly autonomous vehicles are still fairly rare. Even the cars that are labelled as “driverless” tend to require at least some minimal input from an actual human being. In these cases, assigning some level of legal fault can be a little more straightforward.

For a truly driverless car to be cleared for the highway, its safety features have to be tested and proven to be pretty close to perfect. So far, not many automakers have risen to the occasion… but that could start to change soon.

When it does, it will present an array of legal dilemmas—assuming, of course, that driverless cars are still involved in some collisions, which seems all but assured.

Given the almost-perfect nature of the driverless car’s safety protocols, will blame automatically be assigned to the other motorist? That’s more likely than you might think, especially since today’s car collision liability laws are highly focused on human drivers and their behavior.

You’ll Need a Lawyer

Those who find themselves involved in driverless car accidents will want to have an attorney who knows how to handle these prickly legal questions. Already there are firms in places like California that have developed a reputation for their shrewd handling of driverless car accident cases; I Accident Lawyer is one example.

And if the driverless car revolution continues as planned, those firms may find themselves with some very full plates.