As technology advances, our legal standards quickly become outdated. Now, perhaps more than ever, the changes in technology are having immense impacts on personal injury law. Yesterday’s accidents are being caused by tomorrow’s technology. Let’s consider a few examples; first let’s look to car accidents involving self-driving cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had to deliberate with Google in order to understand where liability would fall if one of their self-driving Waymo cars was in an accident. The NHTSA identifies the car as the driver in self-driving vehicles, even if there was a driver in the car. However, the question of liability doesn’t stop there. Autonomous vehicles rely on visual inputs to drive, thus something as poor road markings could technically cause them to crash. In such a case the State might also have some liability for the accident because of a failure to maintain public roadways. Additionally, it becomes important to know not only the manufacturer of the car, but also the software developer for the car. Overall, there are at least four parties that may be held liable or negligent if an automated car caused an accident or injury. You can check our previous article on self-driving car accidents for more information on this.
More of Self Driving Systems & Liability
Injuries can also be caused by the technology we carry with us. Perhaps the best example of this in recent years: the exploding Samsung phone. You might remember that a couple of years ago, Samsung released the Galaxy Note 7 and was promptly forced to recall it. The recall came after the phones began spontaneously combusting and many who had the phone received replacements that then did the same thing. Samsung’s smart phone caused at least one man to go to the hospital for injuries from smoke inhalation after his replacement phone burst into flames as he slept beside it. A young girl was also injured by one of the phones and a Southwest flight had to be evacuated when one of the Samsung devices filled the cabin with smoke. This was enough that the phone was banned from airplanes internationally. Samsung was faced with a number of personal injury lawsuits after the myriad of accidents their phone caused.
In both of these cases, the technology that is supposed to be helping is clearly hurting us. Now, accidents and injuries are caused just as easily by our own machines as by other people. The reality is that technology is changing how we look at personal injury. Our law firm is dedicated to helping our clients recover money for the accidents and injuries. While technology might change how we do that, it won’t change what we do.
If you or someone you know may require a Miami Personal Injury attorney for an accident of any kind, Aigen Injury Law, is here to assist you. Please do not hesitate to submit an online FREE CASE REVIEW. At Aigen Injury Law, an experienced lawyer is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week working relentlessly on behalf of victims who suffer from all types of accidents. We offer a free consultation for your personal injury case and there is no fee unless we recover for you.