While the following story didn’t happen here in Indianapolis, it still carries some significant weight for the entire country. It revolves around the ongoing saga of self-driving cars, and what the future holds for these tremendous, but problematic, vehicles.
One big piece of news from yesterday was that the U.S. House of Representatives accelerated the move towards self-driving cars by allowing automakers to release more of these vehicles to the public without the autonomous vehicles meeting certain safety standards. That may sound dangerous, but it would seem the point is to experiment and accelerate the production of self-driving cars, which promise to dramatically cut back on preventable, human-caused car accidents.
But alongside this piece of news is a report that numerous Uber self-driving vehicles have run red lights in San Francisco, and that one was involved in a minor accident in that city recently. The wreck was a rear-end accident that saw another vehicle crash into the autonomous car after the driver had turned off the self-driving mode to allow some pedestrians through.
There is also a video in our source article showing a self-driving car just casually driving straight through a red light. Obviously, there are some serious issues with the Uber self-driving fleet, but this could be a wide-spread problem with self-driving cars in general – not just Uber.
In any case, more problems will undoubtedly show up as these vehicles become more popular and more widely available. Figuring out legal liability will be a new issue that needs to be addressed in the world or personal injury law.
Source: San Francisco Business Times, “Uber’s self-driving vehicle has first California car crash in San Francisco,” Riley McDermid, Aug. 30, 2017
Gayle Gerling Pettinga
Born and raised in Evansville, Gayle is a respected, experienced lawyer and a valued community leader. She graduated near the top of her class at Indiana University’s prestigious Maurer School of Law. She’s practiced law with one of the largest firms in Indianapolis as well as one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. And that means she knows how big law firms and big companies think and how they operate – and she will put that knowledge to work for you.
Gayle has received numerous awards and honors including Martindale-Hubbell — Peer Review Rated: AV®, American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys 10 Best Attorneys in Indiana for Exceptional and Outstanding Client Service, and YWCA Evansville 100 Years, 100 Women Honoree, 2011.
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