Atlee Hall partner, Jaime Jackson, was recently invited to speak to the Western Trial Lawyers Association (WTLA) on crash avoidance technologies, robot cars, and decisions made by machines.

How the future of car crash litigation will be impacted by crash avoidance technologies and autonomous vehicles is a topic that Jaime has frequently lectured on across the country, especially in front of the legal community. Jaime is passionate about consumer safety and therefore has dedicated himself to being at the forefront of understanding the latest technology and how the consumer will be impacted in the future.

Jaime’s presentation to the WTLA focused on crash avoidance technologies such as Automatic Emergency Braking, Lane Keep Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control, and Blind Spot Detection and how the number of motor vehicle crashes would decrease dramatically if these technologies were equipped as standard equipment in modern automobiles. Despite these crash avoidance technologies being available for many years, most new vehicles on America’s highways today are still not equipped with these life-saving safety technologies.  However, these technologies to be a safety feature, they must be implemented a meaningful way after they have been thoroughly tested. Currently,  some manufacturers are racing to market to be the first to put automated technologies in vehicles or put robot cars on America’s highways without proper testing and regulation, putting profits ahead of safety.

There is no doubt that the future of car crash litigation will continue to be shaped as automotive technology evolves and crash avoidance technologies and robot cars become more commonplace across America’s highways. The landscape of car crash litigation will continue to change with new issues such as who is responsible for the crash if the vehicle’s radar or lidar fails, the vehicle manufacturer, the driver to the extent there is one, the component manufacturer, the software manufacturer, or a combination?

Due to the concern for consumer safety with the rollout of these technologies, Jaime will continue to speak across the country to address these issues. As the car crash litigation landscape changes, it becomes only more important for attorneys to stay up to date with this evolving technology and the legal issues it brings.