Most, if not all, of you have heard news about vehicles that can operate without a driver. These machines’ makers promise to ensure safer roads by removing all human error from the streets, which many statistics have shown account for the vast majority of car accidents. In fact, two automotive specialists believe that driverless cars will demonstrate that 99.9 percent of all accidents were caused by mistakes made by humans. But will that be case?
The jury is still out. Although some driverless vehicles have already hit the road for testing, most from Google’s parent company Alphabet, it is still too early to know for sure just how safe these vehicles are. Why? Current statistics show that about one car accident death occurs for every 100 million miles traveled, meaning that before we have usable statistics regarding driverless car safety, they will need to travel hundreds of millions, if not billions, of miles. Alphabet’s driverless cars, which are currently being tested in Arizona, have only traveled 3.5 million miles so far in what could be considered ideal driving conditions.
Yet, despite the lack of usable statistics, many fear that companies will artificially inflate their cars’ safety, thereby seeking to pressure legislators and regulators into minimizing human drivers. This, in turn, could cause the market to shift and, perhaps, result in a world where humans are banned from driving on the roads. Others think that driverless cars will, instead of replacing human-driven vehicles, merely offer another option.
While it is still too early to tell how much of an impact self-driving cars will have on our daily lives in the near future, one thing remains certain: accidents caused by human error will continue to occur for the foreseeable future. In these instances, victims may want to consider taking legal action in hopes of recovering compensation for the damages they have suffered from an automobile collision. To learn more about how to pursue one of these claims, Arizona residents may want to consider obtaining legal guidance.
