The Department of Transportation (DOT), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced that ten major motor vehicle manufacturers will be equipping all vehicles from their facilities with a life saving safety system. The implementation of an automatic emergency braking (AEB) system is the result of a suggestion made in January by the DOT that will continue to become a standard safety feature in cars. The companies that will be manufacturing vehicles with AEB accounted for 57% of motor vehicle sales last year- Audi, BMW, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo- will be adding the new technology in the vehicles they manufacture in an effort to prevent crashes.
The Liability Questions of Self Driving Cars
In the modern age, many new questions about liability arise as new innovations are introduced into society. For example, while publicity is spreading about Google's self driving cars, it leaves many wondering: who is liable in the event of an accident? These test cars have been in 11 accidents in the last 6 years while Google has been testing the project, over the course of 1.7 million miles. Google has asserted that none of the accidents were the fault of the self driving car, but were due to human error. The Department of Motor Vehicles in California, where the cars are being tested, has refused to release any details about the accidents, due to confidentiality laws in the state. According to Google, the accidents resulted in only minor scratches to the vehicles involved and no injuries.
