Automated cars are coming, and quickly. They are being designed, produced, and tested, and a lot of that testing happens in Arizona. Because of this, Governor Doug Ducey recently signed an executive order to create a group that will work together to research and create guidelines for the testing of autonomous cars in the state.
The group consists of government agencies like the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Safety. It also includes all three of the state’s public universities and the Commerce Authority.
The autonomous car market is growing fast. Researchers expect about 10 million driverless cars on the road by 2020. At the same time, there have been accidents. In March 2018, a driverless Uber vehicle undergoing testing struck and killed a woman pushing her bike across a street near Tempe. Tesla has also experienced fatal crashes, like one this past spring where the driver was cued to take over control of the vehicle but failed to do so.
What Do Driverless Cars Mean for Us?
There are already many driverless cars on the roads, all across the state. While many have shared the roads safely, there is still the chance of crashes, and when there is a crash, the laws regarding the crash could be confusing. If there isn’t a driver, who should be held accountable for the crash? Who pays a settlement if the driverless car hurts someone else or causes property damage?
Studies from the Brookings Institution show that many people are still unsure about the safety of driverless vehicles, with more than half of those polled saying they wouldn’t ride in one. Nearly 70% also said they were worried about sharing the road with cars that don’t have drivers inside, and many believe they won’t be any safer than human-driven cars.
The Husband and Wife Law Team at Breyer Law Offices, P.C., is staying up to date on all cases involving driverless cars, and will use their more than two decades of experience to represent clients who are hurt in all types of accidents, including driverless vehicle crashes. Just like crashes that involve vehicles operated by drivers, autonomous car crashes can cause serious injury and even fatalities when they collide with other drivers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians. While these cars might have an advanced intel system, they can’t always account for pedestrians stepping into the street, or lower-visibility motorcyclists sharing the road. Accidents will happen, and Breyer Law Offices, P.C., will be ready to support the victims of those accidents.