For years now, the general public has both anticipated and feared the use of self-driving vehicles. Throughout early 2020, we saw the installation and then ongoing maintenance for tons of 5G towers throughout many metro areas. There are new 5G towers in Atlanta, although there were some present before the early 2020 push for installation.
What happens is that these towers provide faster internet access, imagine it as widening the internet highway. It allows for greater use, higher speeds, and higher response rates. That’s exactly what self-driving cars need to reach the level of accuracy and safety that cities and states want before permitting them outright.
If you’ve been involved in an accident caused by a self-driving car, an Atlanta auto accident attorney may be able to help.
Self-Driving Vehicles and Safety Concerns
For some reason, people generally have much more faith in other people than they do in automated items. Cars are the same thing. People generally believe that other humans that get into accidents regularly are better at driving then an automated vehicle. Why? We’re not only suspicious of the Internet of Things, but we’ve also seen drastic errors. Alexa’s that listen and respond when they’re not called. Autonomous cars and other systems have a very real chance of malfunctioning, having defects, or losing connectivity. What happens then?
Autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars, are exceptionally reliant on that connectivity. There’s nothing more important than that connection and then the reliance on all a wide variety of smaller internal connections. Chips, sensors, and other parts must all work together, and we just don’t have that level of trust in these vehicles yet. Not to mention that driverless vehicles have already had a myriad of accidents.
Will This Put Drivers in Danger?
General Motors released a version of their vision for the future in 2018. They announced that the goal is to have zero crashes and zero emissions because of self-driving vehicles. Is that a realistic vision? Probably not. However, it is likely safe to say that it may decrease the volume of crashes that we experience on a day to day level.
The larges impact will probably be seen on surface streets where people are walking and where there are low-speed limits. While a self-driving car can certainly react at higher speeds, the impact and overarching physics of the crash don’t change. People in self-driving cars will still get hurt in an accident. There’s no amount of safety feature that creates an injury-free crash.
Will the Self-Driving Vehicles Be Held Responsible for Accidents?
In all likelihood, the responsibility for the fault in a crash will still come down to the person sitting in the driver’s seat. Although the car may be self-driving, vehicles such as Teslas which require that someone sit behind the wheel. A self-driving car will rely on the vehicle’s intelligence and sensors to anticipate and respond to general road conditions.In emergencies, that all changes. If something drastic happens in front of you, the driver must take control of the vehicle. That situation puts them as responsible. Tesla, the manufacturer, generally seen as leading the way on this front, has set the liability standard. They’re not liable. They create a product that has safety features. However, it does not safeguard against accidents or collisions.
Manufacturers will likely get away with this by advertising the vehicles as self-driving but not entirely autonomous. That is what we are largely seeing with other safety features such as the auto-brake and lane assist features. These are assistants and don’t replace a human’s response system. Self-driving cars will be real in the very near future. However, it doesn’t mean that drivers are excused from fault.
Self-Driving and Other Features That Lead To Accidents — Call An Atlanta Auto Accident Attorney
Self-driving, auto-brake, and lane detection are all known to actually cause accidents. But are they preventing enough to support their development and eventual use on the road? Lane detection is making it difficult for people to evade or avoid accidents. Auto-brake is causing accidents, but still, neither feature is malfunctioning on a degree that cancels out the good they do.
Self-driving, however, is a completely different story, not only are you looking at the high possibility of a car making decisions, but also causing crashes. There are some companies that assure us that a person will always be in the vehicle, but how complacent will they become over time? Is it safe enough to get people into self-driving cars?
The Weinstein Firm helps people who are in crashes of all shapes and sizes. When we look to the future, we see these major concerns and really begin to consider how safe these cars will be on the road. If you’re in any type of auto collision, call our Atlanta auto accident law firm today.
