Autonomous Vehicle Technology and Liability for Car Accidents
Decades ago, pop culture used to envision a future where unoccupied cars ferried groceries and other products to their destination, or where vehicle owners lounged in the backseat while robot chauffeurs drove the car. Today, autonomous vehicle technology is everywhere. Most cars on the road today have some autonomous vehicle features, and even if not all cars have these, enough do that insurance companies and courts have had to make decisions about instances where a driver failed to fix a mistake made by autonomous driving features of the driver’s cars. Some Western states, where the terrain is flatter than it is in New Jersey and where more of the roads are on a grid pattern, have tested fully self-driving cars, and while many of these smart vehicles successfully completed their mission, they caused enough accidents that most of the testing initiatives terminated early and the self-driving cars went back to the workshop to become more reliable. Meanwhile, your car probably contains some autonomous driving features, and how these affect the apportioning of liability for the accident depends not only on the technology but also on the behavior of the drivers involved. If you have been involved in a collision where self-driving car features played a role, contact a South Jersey auto accident lawyer.
Self-Driving Car Technology Is Not a Yes and No Question
Today, the question is not whether a car is self-driving, but rather how much input it needs from a human driver. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) categorizes cars into six categories of autonomy:
- Level 0 – Momentary Driving Assistance means that the cars still have standard features like cruise control and automatic braking, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning.
- Level 1 – Driver Assistance means that the cars help with steering or with acceleration and deceleration, but not with both of these aspects at the same time.
- Level 2 – Additional Assistance enables the cars to steering and control speed at the same time.
- Levels 3, 4, and 5 are not available in any models of car for sale in the United States. They are known as Conditional Automation, High Automation, and Total Automation, respectively. Level 4 robotaxis are the most autonomous vehicles ever tested in the U.S. The most autonomous cars can theoretically operate without a human driver.
- New Jersey law requires that, no matter how much autonomous driving technology the car has, the driver must pay full attention to the road. You are responsible for what your car does, no matter how smart it is. Whether it was the driver or the car that failed to brake in time to avoid a collision, legally, this is still the driver’s responsibility.
Contact Monaco Law About Car Accidents
Contact Monaco Law PC in Marlton, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss yourself-driving car accident case. Joseph Monaco is a New Jersey and Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer serving Atlantic County, Bucks County, Burlington County, Cape May County, Camden County, Chester County, Cumberland County, Delaware County, Gloucester County, Mercer County, Middlesex County, Monroe County, Montgomery County, Philadelphia, Ocean County, Salem County, Susquehanna County and all of New Jersey.
Source:
slashgear.com/1513285/self-driving-car-can-you-get-dui-dwi/
