Exploring the Legal Complexities of Injuries Caused by Autonomous Vehicles: What Victims Need to Know

We’re living in an age of exciting technological innovation, with the rise of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and even self-driving cars. These autonomous vehicles represent an exciting advancement for personal transport. They are slowly gaining popularity, with some estimates suggesting that there will be more than 100,000 self-driving vehicles on the roads as soon as 2030.
However, this new technology also brings fresh risks and dangers. For example, what if a self-driving car causes a crash or injures someone? Who should be held liable, and how? It’s a bit of a legal gray area at the moment, and laws are being updated to address this emerging technology. Let’s look at what autonomous vehicle accident victims need to know.
Understanding Autonomous Vehicles
Let’s start with a look at autonomous vehicles in general. Autonomous or self-driving vehicles are vehicles that can drive themselves. They don’t need a human driver sitting behind the wheel, pressing pedals, and steering the car around. Instead, they operate on their own, adjusting speed and direction accordingly on the way to their defined destination.
Overview of How AVs Operate
So, how do these self-driving vehicles operate? Well, they’re made up of key components that work together to guide and control the car. At the core is a smart computer, which is effectively the brain of the car. It processes information, which is collected by sensors around the vehicle that help to “see” the surroundings.
The computer then uses all that information and its artificial intelligence to make decisions about steering, speed, and so on. It’s a lot like how humans look ahead at the road conditions and then make decisions about slowing down, stopping, or speeding up, except the entire process is done by sensors and computer chips instead.
Legal Framework for Autonomous Vehicles
Since autonomous vehicles are still so new, there’s no established legal framework to handle cases that involve them. Indeed, the legal landscape all over the world has to evolve quite quickly to figure out how to manage autonomous vehicle crashes and situations, as there are clear challenges regarding liability, insurance, and proof when it comes to AV incidents.
In the U.S., for now, states are still grappling with the issue, and laws can vary across state lines. On a general level, if a self-driving car still requires some level of oversight from a licensed driver, it can be held liable after a crash. However, for fully autonomous vehicles, it tends to be the manufacturer of the vehicle that is primarily held accountable when something goes wrong.
Determining Liability in AV-Related Accidents
Arguably the biggest challenge in terms of establishing a distinct legal framework for AV-related accidents is deciding who is liable if and when accidents happen. After all, if the car is driving itself, then it seems impossible for the driver or anyone else in the car to be blamed if it crashes or causes an injury. However, the victim deserves some sort of compensation and justice, and for that, blame must be assigned.
Current Laws and Regulations
As touched on above, in the current legal landscape in the U.S., at least, states have their laws about incidents involving AVs. More often than not, the driver can be held accountable if the vehicle is only partially autonomous and still needs supervision and oversight from a driver. But if it’s a fully autonomous car, the company that made it may be held responsible.
Liability in AV Accidents
It’s worth noting, too, that the AV itself isn’t always responsible for an accident. An AV car might crash into a human-operated one, and it may be that the human driver wasn’t paying attention, was driving on the wrong side of the road, was under the influence, or got distracted. In any of those cases and others, the human driver will be held liable, not the AV.
Insurance Conditions
Another issue concerning autonomous vehicles is how to insure them. The technology is still in its infancy and hasn’t proven to be perfect or infallible yet. In other words, AVs can still crash, just like human-operated ones, and insurance companies have to decide how to insure a vehicle that isn’t operated traditionally by a human driver. Additionally, policies have to be updated to provide coverage for human drivers who end up in crashes with AV cars.
Challenges in Legal Claims
Next, let’s explore some of the many challenges that even experienced personal injury lawyers may encounter when it comes to handling legal cases involving AVs.
Proving Fault
This is a challenge for all auto accidents, but it’s especially problematic for cases involving AVs. It can be tricky to assign blame in a lot of accidents, especially if the operators of both vehicles maintain their innocence or blame the other party. Evidence must be gathered to determine if a driver wasn’t paying attention or if part of an AV’s system malfunctioned, causing the crash.
Gathering Evidence
As touched on in the previous section, evidence is essential in cases like this. But, given the complexity of AV systems, it can be challenging for legal teams to essentially dig into the computers to potentially uncover proof that some sort of bug or error occurred and caused the car to operate incorrectly.
Legal Precedents
There have been documented cases of self-driving cars involved in accidents. A lot of Tesla vehicles, for example, using the company’s “Autopilot” system have had accidents leading to lawsuits. In 2018, too, a self-driving Uber car crashed into and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, which sparked a big legal debate and much discussion about how AVs should be used.
Victims’ Rights and Remedies
If you’re a victim of an incident involving an AV, know that you’re not alone and that help is out there. Experienced personal injury and auto accident lawyers can guide you through the complex web of legal frameworks around AV incidents, and states, as well as countries around the globe, are working to bring in new laws and regulations regarding the usage of AVs.
Evolving Legal Landscape
All in all, this is a gray area for the time being, but it’s bound to become clearer in the years ahead. Self-driving vehicles seem like an integral part of future transport, both on personal and commercial levels, and laws will need to be updated and new policies and systems put in place to handle incidents when AVs cause or are involved in collisions, injuries, or even fatalities.
Overall, the rights around injuries caused by autonomous vehicles may seem complex and confusing, but legal experts understand the situation better than anyone. So, if you’re involved in an incident, it’s best to contact a trusted legal team near you to find out your next best steps, gather evidence, and start your claim for compensation on the right foot.