Driverless Cars and Safety Technology: What You Should Know

Arizona has been a testing place for driverless vehicles for a long time, so we face some additional dangers on the road. If you were injured in a collision with an autonomous vehicle, or because of defective technology within the car, we can help. Please watch our videos by Nick Verderame and Richard Plattner to learn more.

What if I Get Hit by a Driverless Car?

Every day we’re seeing more and more driverless cars on the street, but the accidents aren’t going to stop, and people often wonder, “What if I get in a crash with a driverless car?” There’s no other driver to make a claim against; is there anything you can do? Just because there’s not a driver it doesn’t mean there’s not a case. The case is just a little bit different: as opposed to suing someone who’s driving, you’re able to make a claim against the company that manufactured the car, either did so in an incorrect way, or maybe left something out that would have avoided the crash and protected everyone else on the street.

What Is Crashworthiness?

Crashworthiness means that a car is designed to minimize the injury to the occupants when it crashes. Car makers have known for over 100 years that when you make a car, some of them are gonna crash. And there all kinds of technologies that are supposed to built into a car, so the gas tanks don’t explode, so that there’s soft materials that people inside hit in the secondary crash, when their body hits some part inside the car. Things to stop the roof from crushing down. The geometry of the way the seatbelt is designed to prevent you from coming into contact with parts of the car that you shouldn’t. All of these things are designed to combine to make a car safer, to help make crashes more survivable.

Driver Assist Technology

Driver assist technology are devices in cars to help the driver avoid a crash. It turns out that they are very cheap – way cheaper than what the car manufacturers were charging for them – and they’ve been around for a long, long time. They should have been putting these things in cars for a long time. If there’s been a serious crash and it might have been avoided had there been driver assist technology in that car, visit our website or call us at 602-266-2002, see if you’ve got a case. The Phoenix car accident lawyers of Plattner Verderame, P.C. provide honest, practical guidance to clients throughout Arizona.