When Driverless Cars Crash, Who’s at Fault?

It has been predicted that by the year 2020 there will be some 10 million driverless cars on the roads. In preparation for this, the auto industry has been including such features as park assist and crash avoidance technologies on more and more vehicles in recent years. While drivers adjust to the thought of relinquishing all navigational control to their vehicles, the government is grappling with some practical matters that the new fully-automated vehicle technology will bring.

The Department of Transportation recently released new policies aimed at balancing safety with this new technological advancement. These policies address such issues as how to assess a vehicle’s crashworthiness, how to prevent hacking of the automated systems; and how to cope with a system failure. To learn more, read “Department of Transportation Releases Policy on Driverless Vehicles.”

Meanwhile, insurers and lawyers both are dealing with the question of responsibility in the event of accidents involving driverless cars. For more on this, read “Who’s Responsible for Self-Driving Car Accidents?”