The self-driving car industry and its products are here to stay in Arizona. This means that your chances are higher of finding yourself involved in a traffic accident with a vehicle in which the human occupant, if there is one, will have played little or no role in operating it.
Cars and trucks that use self-driving technology introduce questions about who is responsible when they get into collisions. In this blog post, we consider issues of legal liability that can come into play if you get into an accident with an autonomous vehicle.
If you have been injured in an Arizona traffic accident and the other vehicle is a self-driving car or truck, call Stone Rose Law to provide you with experienced legal representation, starting with identifying who is responsible for the harm you have suffered.
To speak with one of our Arizona car accident lawyers, call us at (480) 631-3025. You can also schedule a free consultation with a member of our legal team online.
How is Liability Established in an Autonomous Vehicle Accident?
In Arizona, most car accidents involving two or more vehicles are based on the legal concept of negligence. Accidents involving self-driving vehicles often involve negligence principles, but may also involve product liability, warranty, or other legal theories depending on the facts.
To prove that another driver is negligent, you need to show that all of the following are more likely than not to be true (this is known as a “preponderance of evidence” standard):
- The other driver owed you a duty of care.
- The other driver breached this duty.
- The breach of duty caused you to suffer harm.
- The harm you suffered is compensable in the form of money damages.
Negligence can extend beyond the driver of the other car. This is important in the context of driverless cars because the vehicle may not have a person behind the wheel or even a steering wheel. Identifying everyone who may share in responsibility for causing the accident is one of the most important tasks your personal injury lawyer will have from the beginning.
Arizona is a pure comparative fault state, meaning liability can be split among multiple parties. Fault in self-driving car accidents is often distributed among several parties based on the cause of the accident, including manufacturers, software developers, human operators, and other drivers.
Proving liability in an autonomous vehicle crash can involve unique forms of evidence-gathering for this mode of transportation. These evidence forms include:
- Event data recorders (EDRs): These capture and store information like vehicle speed, braking, and system activity in the seconds before the crash.
- Sensor and camera logs: These can show how the self-driving car detected other vehicles, pedestrians, or road hazards.
- Software update and maintenance records: These can show whether the driverless vehicle’s system was outdated or malfunctioning.
- Law enforcement reports and witness statements: These can help determine what happened from perspectives outside of the autonomous vehicle.
Who May Be Liable in a Driverless Vehicle Accident?
Even if a human was not operating an autonomous car at the time of the accident, others can still be responsible for the collision. These potentially liable parties are the same as might be involved in any other motor vehicle accident.
The Designer or Autonomous Vehicle Manufacturer
Any company involved in designing or making a defective product can be liable to anyone who is harmed by that product because of a design or manufacturing defect. This is the essence of product liability law. With regard to autonomous vehicles, the following are examples of potentially liable parties:
- The autonomous vehicle car manufacturer
- Any vendor or contractor of the vehicle manufacturer that provides parts or software used in making the vehicle, including the automated driving system
- In the case of the original sale of the vehicle, others involved in the distribution chain, including new car dealers, may also share in product liability
Companies that Own and Operate Autonomous Vehicles
When a car with a driver is involved in a collision, and a company owns the vehicle, and the driver was an employee acting in that capacity, the company may be liable under a theory of agency.
In a similar way, if a company owns an autonomous vehicle and that vehicle is involved in a crash while operating on company business, the company may be liable under respondeat superior (vicarious liability) if the vehicle was acting within the scope of the business’s activities.
In a way similar to product liability, if a company that owns and operates an autonomous vehicle hires a contractor to perform services for it and the contractor acts negligently, the contractor may be at least partly responsible for the accident and the harm it causes.
Examples can include a company contracting autonomous vehicle maintenance or repair to another company that negligently performs its services (e.g., brake maintenance), or an autonomous truck company contracting with another company to load cargo and that company loading it unevenly.
Other Third Parties
Sometimes, drivers of other vehicles, aside from those involved in the accident, can contribute to the collision. An unsafe act by a third party, including a pedestrian, can cause the driver of an autonomous vehicle to get into an accident or can put the automated driving system software into a situation it cannot react to without causing an accident.
Public Entities as Possible Defendants
Even the most capable autonomous vehicles can get into accidents if the road conditions are bad enough. If this happens, the public agency charged with keeping the road in safe condition may be liable for neglecting that duty.
Arizona has largely waived sovereign immunity but provides public entities and employees with statutory immunities and imposes strict notice and filing deadlines, including a 180-day notice-of-claim requirement.
Have You Been in an Accident With an Autonomous Vehicle?
Filing a car accident claim with a liability insurance company or in court after a self-driving car crash involves factual determinations and legal challenges that are both familiar and novel. Aside from human error, sensor systems can misread signals. Software can malfunction. Drivers and third parties can make unpredictable, erroneous decisions that cause collisions.
Knowing how to determine fault of another driver, or the manufacturer’s liability, or a third party to you when the involvement of a human driver is only tangential, or when a car is driving itself as a fully automated vehicle, is not always straightforward and often requires a thorough factual investigation.
At Stone Rose Law, our experienced Arizona car accident attorneys have represented clients in incidents involving autonomous vehicles. We understand how federal and Arizona laws govern automated vehicles and the evidentiary issues involved with autonomous vehicle technology, and we can investigate the facts of your accident to identify everyone who may owe you compensation.
To speak with one of our personal injury legal professionals and to schedule a free consultation, call us at any time at (480) 631-3025 or use our online contact form.
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