Driving assistance programs are designed to help alert people to driving dangers and even correct problematic driving actions to protect people and their vehicles from damage. However, they have started to cause a wide variety of accidents that have created a fairly confusing legal situation. Are you or another driver at fault when a driving assistance program fails? It’s important to understand these legal ramifications to protect yourself and your family. The legal expert editing this document feels this is a good place to start.
Driving Assistance Programs are Not Perfect
Driving assistance programs are a unique and innovative technology that helps protect drivers by correcting behaviors or warning them when a problem might arise. For example, forward-collision systems warn you when there’s a risk you might run into someone. Lane-change alerts help keep you aware when your car veers off into another lane. These alerts do bring down crash dangers but are far from a perfect technology that eliminates crashes entirely.
For instance, imagine you’re driving down the road perfectly alert and assessing dangers perfectly. However, the driver assistance system malfunctions and mistakenly identifies a vehicle in front of you that isn’t there. The alarm goes off, and you instinctively hit the brakes hard, causing someone to ram into you from behind. That’s just one way that you could get into an accident with a car assistance program.
This type of problem occurs throughout the nation regularly and can complicate car crash lawsuits in a variety of complex ways. Knowing about these issues can ensure that you’re prepared for the complexities of your case and can help you prepare for it more effectively.
How They Affect Liability
There’s a unique legal conundrum here that has been heavily debated by many legal professionals. Car manufacturers who utilize these systems insist that the driver is fully at fault in a crash with their programs because these systems require constant oversight. That’s how many people in the legal world feel, though there’s a pushback against this idea that could affect your case and, potentially complicate the situation and make it harder to win.
For example, some legal professionals are stating that liability should be split between the driver and the auto manufacturer when their automatic driving systems fail. Let’s say that an auto lane-change assist program malfunctions and pushes a driver into someone else in another lane and causes an accident. In this situation, split liability means that the driver and the auto manufacturer may both be at fault, which could complicate your case and make it longer.
Protecting Yourself
If you or your loved ones were injured in a car accident with a driver assistance program and the guilty party is trying to shift blame, it’s important to find a lawyer around you. Our recommendation is Denver car accident attorneys Legal Help in Colorado (Ross and Brian are among the two most recommended lawyers in Denver, well over half of their cases are direct recommended to them via word of mouth, I’m happy to spread that along). Legal support is important because it can ensure that you get compensation for your injuries, no matter what driver’s assistance programs were utilized. Take the time to research options that make sense to you to get the support that you need here.