Self-Driving Cars

As an experienced Nashville Automobile Accident lawyer I have watched the changing technology related to self-driving cars with great interest. When I first heard of the concept my first question was; why would we need a self-driving cars? I mean I use my car to get me to different places so how would one benefit me.

This question led me to the the Google self-driving car project. And Google tells me that by having a self-driving car would make driving safer and easier. One simply gets into the vehicle, programs the destination and away you go. No human driving with human error to cause an Accident.

The website for this project explains, “Imagine if everyone could get around easily and safely, regardless of their ability to drive.

Aging or visually impaired loved ones wouldn’t have to give up their independence. Time spent commuting could be time spent doing what you want to do. Deaths from traffic accidents—over 1.2 million worldwide every year—could be reduced dramatically, especially since 94% of accidents in the U.S. involve human error.”

Now I’m interested, so I dug deeper into this issue. Next question is; how does this work? According to Google these self driving cars are designed to navigate on city streets through a series of sensors that can detect objects as far as 250 meters in all directions. This information from the sensors is then processed by the onboard software to help the car safely navigate the streets. This technology never gets tired or distracted as do human drivers. In an environment where automobile deaths are on the rise anything that will save lives is a good thing.

But, will self-driving cars be the answer?

Sounds great to me but as a Nashville Automobile Accident Lawyer a car accident free environment might put me out of business but in the overall scheme of things reducing automobile accident deaths would be a major benefit to our country.

The question on my mind is, what percentage of crashes will this technology affect? According to Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx that numbers is 80%. Following reports that a Google car had been involved in an accident the BBC spoke to the Secretary and he had this to say.

“The recent crash involving a Google self-driving car and a bus was not a surprise”. We should note that no one was hurt in the crash but it was the first time that the onboard computer was found to be at fault. But, the Secretary pointed out that before we start blaming the technology we need to look at the number of accidents during that same day that were caused by drivers.

For further analysis of self-driving cars see the following articles:

The Guardian

Wired

I’m going to keep an eye on this interesting developing technology so visit this blog again in the future for updates.

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