The Safety of Self-Driving Vehicles: How Safe Are They?
» Posted April 4, 2018 • Resources | Share This Post
Self-driving cars are quickly moving to the point where they may soon become an option for motorists on the road, but they are not without risks.
Many things can and do go wrong in vehicles, and those who buy cars that have defects already face substantial challenges and often need help from a California lemon law attorney to pursue a legal remedy. The more that people rely on in-car technology, and the more that vehicles are designed to do for drivers, the greater the chances of serious problems arising.
Despite the risks, and the fact that there was a recent pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car, CNN recently published a report arguing that self-driving vehicles are actually fairly safe.
Self-Driving Cars are Fairly Safe
According to CNN, self-driving cars have completed millions of miles of road testing and evidence suggests that these vehicles could have the potential to significantly reduce the number of car accident fatalities that occur on roads throughout the United States.
Self-driving cars have the potential to save lives because so many auto accidents are caused by human error. In fact, CNN repots that the National Safety Council estimated that more than 90 percent of the 40,000 traffic fatalities that occurred on U.S. roads last year were caused by mistakes that drivers made.
"Human drivers aren't that safe," Lionel Robert, a professor at the Robots Institute at the University of Michigan told CNN. He indicated that the goal of those working within the self-driving car industry is to make self-driving cars safer than those operated by individuals.
Self-driving cars can be safer because they are able to obtain and assess much more information. A self-driving car can have a view a full 360 degrees around the car so can obtain much more information compared with a human driver. Self-driving cars also don't get distracted by cell phones or other distractions – the equipment on the vehicles is always monitoring what is going on around the car.
While there may be limited situations where human drivers have the edge, such as when visibility is poor due to weather or when the cars are driving on bad roads, usually technology is likely to provide for a safer operation of a vehicle because when the car is in control, it will not make the types of human errors that individual drivers make all the time.
Of course, this premise assumes that the technology will function properly. This is not always the case with every car. Even existing in-vehicle technology has opened up the door for many drivers to experience problems with car components not functioning properly.
Drivers who purchase vehicles with systems or components that don't work could be at risk of an accident or could experience a lot of hassle and potential financial loss as they attempt to cope with their vehicle's issues. An Orange County lemon law attorney can provide help to many of the motorists who buy cars that turn out to have problems by offering assistance taking advantage of available legal remedies.
Unfortunately, the more cars are expected to do, the more things could go wrong and the more motorists might experience car problems that are difficult to address.
