Who is Liable in Self-Driving Car Accidents?

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Technology keeps evolving by the day, gracing our sights with mind-blowing innovation that literally leaves one mouth agape, staring in awe at how instrumental such devices are and the solution they procure to lifelong problems that seemed impossible in the past. One of such innovations is the self-driving car, which used a combination of electronic and artificial intelligence to navigate our road without the need for human input. But paraventure, if such a vehicle gets involved in an accident, who should take the blame? Is it the owner or manufacturer of such vehicles? In this article, I'll talk extensively on this, in my opinion.

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You see one thing about we humans is the fact that we love to shift blame, and that usually leads to more chaos and unrest. Rather than taking blame for something we orchestrated, you'll find the person finding a way out and how to blame something else from their own mistakes; however, in the case of a self-driven car, I believe this is somewhat peculiar and complicated. Before we can identify who's to blame, we must also first vet all details involved in what led to the such accident before reaching a conclusion.

To start with, I'm a big fan of technological innovation, and I'll always thrill to get my hands on them, and so if paraventure I can afford to purchase a self-driven car, I won't think twice before buying it, although there are some factors to consider before buying it too, and I'll explain them bit by bit. The first thing is to consider the factor of whether our road system and network can accommodate such a type of vehicle, and another is if such is allowed or approved by the government to be on the road.

One of the biggest causes of accidents is the drivers we've got on the road; most of them tend to disobey traffic rules, and on most occasions that leads to accidents leading to losses of lives and property. Another is how bad the road is; with loads of potholes here and there, it damages vehicles gradually, and before you know it, some part of the vehicle might get damaged while on the move, leading to accidents as well.

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Now concerning who's to blame for an accident that happened involving a self-driven car, like I said, we'll have to consider the factor that led to such an accident. There are situations where a self-driven car will obey traffic rules and move when it ought to, and from nowhere another vehicle who disobeys traffic rules from the other side hits the car and leads to an accident. In that situation, we can't blame the owner of the car, nor will we blame the manufacturer, but blame the other driver that disobeys traffic rules.

In the other situation, since most of these cars have artificial intelligence that has been programmed to be smart and scan the road and as well obey the owners in special cases, a self-driven car is trying to be conscious and not speed, but the owner insisted the car increases its pace because he wants to meet a deadline, then the owner must take the blame if an accident occurs after such a command.

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And lastly, in my opinion, if a self-driven car gets involved in an accident and it's due to technical issues, then the manufacturer must be ready to take the blame for their mistakes. They've put the mind of everyone at rest that the vehicle is smart, so when the car does otherwise and it leads to accidents, then they must take responsibility and serve whatever punishment the issue is worth.

In a nutshell, like I said, it's a dynamic situation, and depending on what led to the accident when vetted is what will determine who's to take the blame, and if everyone plays their role accordingly, then the chances of an accident occurring will be minimized, leading to security of lives and properties even with the usage of self-driven cars.


All photos are taken and Canva.


Posted Using InLeo Alpha



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22 comments
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Yeah!! I agree with you on this, because our drivers aren't always normal on the road, a lot of factors can lead to accidents but then before blaming anyone, the main cause of the accident should be known...

Because the only thing that can go wrong with this vehicle is the technical aspect of it.

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That's exactly the best method to discover what cause the problem and it'll let us identify the real culprit.

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There’s a very low chance that self driving cars will get involved in accidents unless there are special factors leading to that. But I can’t say some for our drivers these days.😂 they will throw you in the bush and leave you.

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That's just it, if all it technical aspects is perfect, then there's be less chances of such, but human drivers are somethings else.

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I tell you.😂 self driving cars over human driving cars everyday

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Naso I, I can't trust most humans with the way they act.

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I also think that the blame, if an accident occurs, should lie with the manufacturer, after all, there isn't really a driver there who could have made a mistake.

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We can't entirely blame them, other drivers can disobey traffic rules, that lead to such accident.

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Relying completely on smart cars for safety is a double-edged sword in this phase of development.

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It's the future, although not perfect at the moment, but in the near future you'll hardly since a human driven car, so we must be prefer to evolve with time.

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It is foolishness to completely trust on such techniques and if a person does so, he will be responsible for it. Companies will not disclose the flaws of their products to promote their products and it is true that some glitches are always there in technologies.

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I don't think we can blame companies entirely for accident, there're other vehicles or the road and with the way humans are know to disobey traffic rules, such can lead to accident too.

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As you mentioned, human beings like to shift the blame onto someone else. This issue of proving who is to blame is very complicated, because the company can simply blame the passenger/driver, building up evidence against them.

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That's just it, but in an advent that there's a dash cam, them it can help recognise the real cause of the accident.

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bad roads is the major problem you are facing,if the road should be fix it will reduce the accident.

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(Edited)

One thing I have noticed is the fact that those companies wouldn’t tell you the flaws of the vehicles they make, they will just tell you the advantages of using their cars so it's up to you. To know how to maintain and use it in a way that accidents will be prevented.

I obviously love that technology has improved but then I don't think i would ever decide to own an autonomous vehicle

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That's works for everyone organizations and product, no one will tell you the downside of their products, so I can't entirely blame them, but everyone just needs to play their part well to get a quality of life on the road.

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