Syracuse Personal Injury Law Blog

Driverless cars are coming. They are eventually going to be a mainstream part of our streets, highways and express ways. How soon they come is up for debate. But what is also not decided is how driverless cars will co-exist with cars that are driven by human beings.

Indeed, the whole notion about driverless cars being safer than cars driven by humans does have some truth to it. After all, autonomous cars don’t get intoxicated and have their judgment impaired by alcohol. They don’t succumb to road rage and drive aggressively in order to show who’s boss. They also don’t make mistakes regarding the interpretation of the rules of the road. So with these in mind, riding in a driverless car should be exceptionally safe. 

But there are two things that may debunk this notion. First, the market may not fully embrace the ability to have fully autonomous cars. Remember how it was expected that the Segway was supposed to eliminate pedestrian traffic? Now the only people who use them are mall cops and people on dedicated tours. It may be that people enjoy the individual freedoms of driving at their own speeds and on their own terms. This is what the American auto industry is built on. So people may not embrace fully automated cars.

It’s been a number of years since distracted driving became a national safety issue; specifically, talking on cell phones and texting while driving. Since then, more than 30 states have enacted laws limiting cell phone use while behind the wheel, and they have enacted rules detailing how teen drivers may drive.

Essentially, young drivers may not use cell phones at all when behind the wheel, and they may only drive at certain times of the day. Despite these rules, teen drivers still use their cell phones while driving; but it was always difficult to track how many young drivers actually do so. After all, police reports (created after an accident) may not always detail whether a driver was distracted by using a phone (or any other reason).

However, a recent study conducted by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that distracted driving was more of a problem among teen drivers than originally thought. Researchers reviewed nearly 1,700 dashboard camera videos that chronicled the moments before a teen driver was involved in a crash, and they found that these drivers were commonly distracted.

Last month we wrote a post about the Detroit International Auto show and how automakers were showcasing concept cars that ostensibly give us a peek into the future. Part of this future includes self-driving cars, which automakers have hinted could be on the road by the end of this decade.

 If you are a car enthusiast, or have purchased a luxury model in the past few years, you understand that there are elements of autonomous automobiles already in practice. They include park assist functions, intelligent cruise control modules and automatic braking systems, to name a few. Even with these advancements, testing is still being conducted in earnest regarding self-driving cars. 

In fact, an Audi SUV is poised to make history by being the first self-driving car to make a cross country trip. The car, which is equipped with technology developed by Delphi Corp. has reportedly been tested on the streets of California and Nevada, but a long distance road trip will be the car’s ultimate test. Essentially, the car will drive on its own, but an engineer will be behind the wheel and ready to take over in the event of an emergency.