Avoiding Endless Lawsuits In Self-Driving Technology

Frequency of highway car crashes or accidents caused either by man-driven and self-driven cars, machine and computer technology used in manufacturing cars as a safety measure, human error or technology failure, multi-directional or unidirectional blame-game, the resultant lawsuits, etc., are all important to the contemporary society, and they are subject to endless debate and discussion - sometime supported by strong logic and empirical data, at another by gyrations of an irrational mind. It is natural, and perhaps full of wisdom too, to avoid litigation i. e. abstain from knocking at the doors of justice which is dispensed with in a lackadaisical manner for want of concrete evidence, whether in support of the victim or the technology or the car manufacturing company.

Under this scenario, it ought to be a joint responsibility of the all concerned (the victim and the car makers) and all the stake-holders (including the State regulatory authorities) to take some part of the blame on themselves and look for an amicable solution of the problem. Suggested below are few remedial measures that might help minimize the threat of endless lawsuits without stifling self-driving technology innovations.

1. Technology is developing at an incredible speed trying to plug the loopholes in its application in the self-driven car manufacturing. Instead of squarely blaming the existing technology for the highway accidents, it will be wiser for the car manufacturing companies to invest in more rigorous research to overcome the problems plaguing self-driven cars plying on the highways.
2. Semi-autonomy is showing that computer drivers are likely safer than human ones; hence complete autonomy with the application of more refined, sophisticated and problem-focused technology may possibly make auto-pilot car driving much safer than what is being experienced today.
3. It is a relatively safe bet for driverless carmakers to say they will foot the bill for everything from fender benders to violent crashes because semi-autonomy is showing that computer drivers are likely safer than human ones. Data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, for instance, have found that crash-avoidance braking can reduce total rear-end collisions by 40 percent. A study of the European version of Pilot Assist revealed that the computer maintains safer follow distances and has fewer harsh braking incidents than human drivers do (Corinne lozio, 2016).
4. With innovative technology, the self-driven cars are likely to be fully equipped with autonomous driving capability and marketed as a substitute to human driving. There will be no drivers to blame, and the only remaining culprit would be the technology, which at the moment is moving towards more revolutionary refinements based on human experience and hard accident data. This might help reining in human tendency to flout norms and file lawsuits and seek adjudication.
5. All this promises to reduce accidents, but not completely eliminate them. U. S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. , acknowledged that it would be “an impossible standard” to eliminate all crashes. People need to remember, he goes on to argue, that autonomous vehicles will save tens of thousands of lives a year. Self-driving cars could reduce traffic fatalities by 90% once fully deployed. However, researchers, automakers, academics and others understand something else about self-driving cars and the risks they may still pose, namely, that for all their promise to reduce accidents, they can't eliminate them.