What are the New Developments in Automated Cars?

Few things affect your Las Vegas Car Accident Attorney more than the automated cars. As you may recall from prior blogs, automated cars are now being tested on our Nevada roadways. Aside from minor accidents, there have been no real catastrophes involving automated cars. That all changed on May 7, 2016 for a driver in Florida.

On May 7, 2016, Joshua Brown, a former Navy Seal, was driving his Tesla Model S in Florida, in the “semi-autonomous Autopilot system”, when he was killed in a fatal car crash. In piecing together the events leading up to the crash, investigators determined Mr. Brown wasn’t actually driving his car.  Moments before the crash, a big rig, made a left hand turn in front of Mr. Brown’s Tesla.

The driver of the semi-truck, said when the accident happened, he could hear a movie playing. In an erie turn of events, even after Mr. Brown had died in the collision, the truck driver saw the Telsa drive down a quarter of mile before stopping due to hitting a light pole. In support of the truck driver’s claim, police found a portable DVD player in the Tesla. The DVD proved that Mr. Brown was watching a Harry Potter movie instead of watching the road. 

What caused this horrific accident? Tesla was noted as saying that the Autopilot system failed to see the white truck against the bright Florida sky. Tesla released a lengthy statement on statement the crash, saying:  

“Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S.” 

For your Las Vegas Car Accident Lawyer, there is a deeper issue with current automated cars. The problem with “Driverless” cars at present, is that drivers who aren’t fully paying attention, don’t really have the reaction time to prevent an accident. You can’t ask someone to let the car do all the driving and then act surprised when the “driver” doesn’t have time to avoid an accident.

The Federal government now wants to regulate autonomous cars and take that power away from the states. These new Federal guidelines have come from the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“Safety Administration”).  The Safety Administration has said that States should stick to registering the cars and dealing with questions of liability, when the driver is a computer. It remains to be seen how the States feel about this and what the ultimate result will be. 

The Safety Administration stated that it can use its current “recall” authority to regulate automated cars. It warned automakers that self-driving cars that still rely on a human driver to intervene in some circumstances must have a means for keeping the driver's attention. If they don't, that "may be defined as an unreasonable risk to safety and subject to recall," the department said.  This is an ever-changing topic and updates will be provided by your Las Vegas Accident Lawyer as developments unfold.

Next time, we will talk about the liability of rental car companies after an accident.