Residents in Tennessee and around the country understand why so many companies might seek ways to reduce the number of motor vehicle accidents that occur every year. While this may be a goal most people would agree with, the path to achieving this may not be something everyone is in agreement with. The United States Department of Transportation indicates that up to 94 percent of all crashes are influenced by some type of human error. This fact is often used to support the advancement of autonomous vehicles as the potential answer to traffic fatalities.
In an effort to help make self-driving cars a reality on American roads, the federal government is consciously limiting the amount of regulations it places on the companies developing these vehicles and the technologies associated with them. Some fear this opens the door to more risk for people who must share the road as guinea pigs with these vehicles as they are being tested.
There are many types of technologies and sensors that are used to make a self-driving car operate. Ultimately software must be programmed to teach the vehicle how to respond to different situations. Some question whether or not all situations can be accounted for up front and what a vehicle may do when confronted with a situation for which it has no program. It is this type of situation in which accidents may be more likely to keep happening.
When involved in a crash with a human-driven or self-driven car, people in Tennessee may want to talk with a lawyer to learn about their options.
Source: Curbed, “Driverless cars: Are they safe for our cities,” Alissa Walker, April 3, 2018