Some friends of ours recently purchased a new Toyota Highlander. It’s equipped with some nice safety technology standard including blind spot and lane departure warning, a backup camera, and automatic breaking so you don’t rear end the person in front of you if they brake unexpectedly. I believe technology like this has the potential to help people be safer drivers and avoid accidents.
One of the questions testers, legislators, and even insurance companies are asking is who or what is at fault when a self-driving car crashes? Will it be the other driver, the autonomous car, or some combination? In addition, what testing procedures will the automaker need to follow when testing the vehicle, and whose insurance covers an accident if the self-driving technology is to blame for the accident?
Driverless cars are coming, and they’re coming sooner than most of us think. One only has to search “driverless car” on Google, Yahoo, or Bing and there will appear over 3,000,000 results for your reading or viewing enjoyment. Google has retrofitted Lexus and Toyota models for testing, not to mention their 100 mini commuter cars that look very similar to a Little Tykes car my youngest son had.
The Detroit auto show started last week and runs through January 26th. There are the debuts of new models from domestic and international car manufacturers, concept cars, and lots of new technology. Chief among the new offerings arriving in cars are those technologies that are grouped in a category referred to as advanced car safety systems. They aren’t quite as sexy as the new Corvette, but if they better protect us from accidents, we’ll be just as appreciative of them.
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