Though it can be hard to believe, self-driving cars are here and if the experts are to be believed, they will soon be common on streets across the country. While there are benefits to these vehicles, they may also create some tricky legal territory. Read on to learn what we think about the pros and possible issues at Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas. Then call us at 909-982-0707 for a free legal consultation if you get involved in a car accident – involving a self-driving car or not.
The U.S. House of Representatives Seems to Have Sped Up the Process
The U.S. House of Representatives took a huge step toward making self-driving cars more likely to be on roads across the country sooner rather than later. They passed a bill that gives carmakers the right to get exemptions from current laws. This will allow them to release as many as 25,000 self-driving cars in the first year. They won’t have to meet the current safety standards for these first 25,000 cars.
In the years that come after, the number of cars that can be released without meeting safety standards is 100,000. Despite how it sounds, this isn’t being done to make it easier for unsafe cars to get on the road. The purpose is actually because it’s harder to know what the safety concerns are for these cars. Safety requirements for a typical car may not be necessary for these self-driving cars, or they may need more requirements.
The Senate gets to make their own changes
Of course, the bill passing the House of Representatives is just the first step. Next, the Senate needs to pass it. It looks likely that there will be some changes as a result of a few advocacy groups that are lobbying for additional safety provisions within the bill. That said, we’d be surprised if the bill didn’t pass in some form.
The increase in fatal car accidents is partially responsible for this bill
One of the reasons that we think this bill will bass is that from 2014 to 2105, there was an almost 8% increase in fatal car accidents. Experts agree that distracted driving is at least partially responsible for this rise. If individuals could get from Point A to Point B in a driver-less car, they could check their phones, text, etc. to their heart’s content – or at least that’s the hope.
There are both pros and cons to the idea of self-driving cars
It’s possible that self-driving cars are going to make the roads safer. There’s also the possibility that they could have the opposite effect. It’s true that when you subtract the possibility of human error, it seems likely that preventable accidents are going to go down.
That said, no one thinks these vehicles are going to be perfect. There will still be accidents and they could be infinitely more complicated because of one issue: Who’s at fault? The manufacturer of the car? The techies who programmed it? The person in the car at the time? These are tricky questions and more will have to be studied before we know for sure how the law will fall. In the meantime, reach out to Law Offices of Fernando D. Vargas at 909-982-0707 for a free legal consultation if you’ve been in an accident.
