If We Automate Trucks Who is Responsible When They Crash?

In 2018, the universal road accidents reports concluded that trucks remain responsible for 6.5% of total accidents because of their giant bodies, which are not easy to navigate. You can easily imagine the condition of a car after it has been struck by a truck weighing more than six thousand pounds. Now the talk is to put full-automated/self-driving 18 wheelers on the road. Its an 80,000 pound robot before you add the load.

Value of No Driver

There are some huge benefits to a company to have self-driving trucks.  No driver means that he cannot due grossly negligent things like drink and drive or use drugs and drive an 18-wheeler. A self-driving vehicle never gets fatigue. It doesn’t require off-duty hours to rest so it can run 24/7. Self-driving trucks are also cheaper for the company because they require no wages, no overtime and no benefits. The downside made be determining who is responsible when the crash.

Traditional Truck Accident Liability

Traditionally, the potentially responsible parties of accidents involving semi-trucks (when the truck was the cause) have included the driver, the truck owner or owner, the company responsible for shipping the load and sometimes a company that was responsible for maintenance. The driver and the trucking company were usually the primary liable parties that a truck accident lawyer would aim for.  First, you prove that the driver was negligent, then you hold the employer liable as the principal. This is because many states require that you prove negligence in an auto collision to hold a party liable. But what happens when there is no driver to be negligent?

Liability With No Driver

When a truck has no driver, obviously you cannot prove negligence on the part of the driver. This is problematic because negligence is the triggering factor for liability in most States. The error is likely a computer malfunction or programming oversight. This is effectively now a product-liability case that the vehicle manufacturer is responsible for. If they company has a maintenance company that maintains the truck and its software, then that company too may be liable. 

Ramifications

In liability insurance states, negligence of a driver triggers liability and coverage.  Your policy promises to defend the driver if sued and pay any judgment for which the driver is determined liable.  If there is no driver, do they have to pay?  Do you, the victim get stuck with the bill?  The reality is, we simply do not know how this is going to play out.  One thing is for sure though, insurance policies are going to have to be modified to cover a driverless situation. Laws may even have to be changed so that companies who operate these vehicles are held strictly liable for crashes.