When it comes to cars that drive themselves, the one thing that comes to mind is a prevalent question: how is the liability distributed in such cases?
Autonomous vehicles, also known as automatic cars, have been in use in recent times. Such technology has brought a revolution in the car manufacturing industry. These cars are the most advanced and have the best features that can be observed.
Autonomous vehicles are the ones that perform the function of self-driving without even the intervention of humans. They do have a number of sensors, machine learning technology, and sophisticated software that make them different from the existing cars in the market.
An accident lawyer in Houston TX says that as far as the future of such cars is concerned, it is for sure brighter than ever, but with that come several challenges that will have to be taken care of later.
Legal Responsibilities with Changing Times
The legal landscape regarding car accidents has taken a huge turn with the advent of automotive vehicles. So, there are some of the major changes seen without the intervention of humans in autonomous vehicles.
The Current Legal Framework
In the traditional framework, the responsibility for any mishap goes directly to the drivers when an accident is seen happening. So, after an accident, the at-fault party is accused of the damages, and they are held responsible for the compensation that the injured party will be getting.
The liability is always decided on the basis of negligence, which involves the driver proving that that driver did not exercise the care that was needed on the roads.
As far as the insurance claims are concerned, in the traditional approach, in order to protect the cost of injuries and damages caused by accidents, drivers are required to have insurance.
Insurers do negotiate settlements on the basis of faults, and insurance policies often have a limit on how much they can pay out.
Now, in the cases where there is an issue of product liability or a malfunction, the product liability laws do play their role here. This means that the people accountable for certain accidents, like the manufacturers or the designer, are being held responsible.
New Legal Responsibilities with Autonomous Vehicles
There have been some drastic changes in the legal framework of things seen nowadays with the advent of autonomous vehicles. So, let’s have a look.
Product Liability
The manufacturers of automatic cars are, most of the time, central figures when it comes to accident liability cases. So, when cases of accidents are being studied, if the accident occurs due to some malfunctioning in the car, the number one person that is to be blamed here is the manufacturer of the car.
Insurance Issues
Toy car, magnifying glass, paper money sitting on insurance policy; image by Vlad Deep, via Unsplash.com.
Like every other industry, the insurance industry is trying its best to change according to the changing times.
For autonomous vehicles and the manufacturers, the insurance companies are making sure to come up with some of the best insurance policies. Product liability coverages have been offered to the manufacturers of the car companies whenever there is some malfunction seen in the electric cars.
Shifting of Liability
The whole concept of liability has undergone a change since automatic cars emerged on the scene. It has been observed that liability is one of the biggest challenges in car accidents when it comes to autonomous vehicles. There is no easy way to find out who to blame when it comes to finding out the party at fault for liability purposes.
Depending on the circumstances that you are in, liability could be shifting from human drivers to vehicle manufacturers to software developers or even owners of vehicles.
So, this drastic shift seen in the case of liability is one of the major changes that autonomous vehicles have brought with them.
Regulations of Government
There has been a lot of work being done by the government in order to make sure that clear guidelines are established for the people on the roads to get the justice that they deserve after car accidents.
Some of the regulations by the government focus on the safety standards that must be provided to the people on the roads, some focus on the testing out the protocols, and some just put all their focus on the liability.
So, there have been drastic changes being observed in the regulatory authorities, including the government of many states, with the increase in the use of automotive vehicles.
So, the legal responsibility is taking a shift, and it has been seen that the liability is changing from humans to the manufacturers of these cars.
Conclusion
When it comes to cars that drive themselves, the one thing that comes to mind is a prevalent question: how is the liability distributed in such cases? Well, there have been some changes observed. Lately, that can impact the rules and laws altogether to give justice to the ones that get involved in car crashes or automotive vehicles.
Powered by WPeMatico