Some of our New Orleans readers may dream of having a personal chauffeur to drive them to work, but they may not know that the dream may come true in the not so distant future. Car makers are testing models of driverless cars with the hope of bringing an offering to the market within the next 10 years.
Las Vegas, Nevada, was home to the International Consumer Electronics Show for 2014. Car companies have took this time to showcase their new driverless car technology. Nevada is the perfect platform for their demonstrations because it is one of few states that allows automated cars to be test driven. BMW and Audi have unveiled their latest driverless models.
Though car makers are hopeful about this new technology, the greatest hurdle to implementation is current law. Before automated cars can hit the marketplace, there are unanswered legal questions that must be addressed. For example, when a car is being driven in automatic mode and a car accident occurs, who is responsible? Car makers are working hard to integrate safety features into the automated cars that will allow drivers to take control of the car in a short amount of time. Essentially, in the car, entertainment must be interrupted to allow the driver to take control of the vehicle in less than 10 seconds.
When the driver of a vehicle participates in distracted driving, there is no question of liability. To gain full compensation, accident victims may want to get more information about the available options.
Source: CNN, “Driverless car tech gets serious at CES,” Heather Kelly, Jan. 9, 2014
