Where does liability lie in a self-driving accident?

Self-driving accident

Several days ago, InsideEVs mused over a $240+ million verdict against Tesla rendered by a jury in Florida and what it would mean to the automotive industry. Who is liable in a self-driving accident?

Tesla, which intends to appeal the verdict, continues on the one hand to call its Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) ‘Autopilot’, but maintains that the driver remains responsible to be attentive.

Not so Autopilot after all.

But it’s one of the first major legal decisions over the technology that has gone against Tesla. Other claims have either been dismissed or settled.

We’ve discussed this here nearly ad nauseum, and we continue to maintain that if the car has taken control of the driving, the manufacturer of that car has taken responsibility for the results.

The crash in question involved a Tesla Model S and resulted in the death of one person and serious injuries to another. The driver stated he was attempting to recover a dropped telephone and expected the car would stop for any obstacle it encountered.

This seems to be a very reasonable expectation. How can this not rule number one for a self driving car??

For the record, every post on X from Tesla or a Tesla driver continually tout the fact that the cars drive themselves.

Regardless, we first discussed this issue back in 2015 when Håkan Samuelsson, then president and chief executive of Volvo Cars, said that Volvo would accept full liability whenever one if its cars is in autonomous mode.

Earlier this year China’s BYD dipped a toe in by saying that if a car damages another while using its intelligent parking feature, they will pay the damages.

This bears repeating: we continue to maintain that if the car has taken control of the driving, the manufacturer has taken responsibility for the results. Period.

We look forward to the day we no longer need to shell out for car insurance…

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