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Are autonomous cars really going to stop all crashes?

On Behalf of | Jun 12, 2020 | Personal Injury |

Many people say that autonomous vehicles are the way of the future, and they believe that they’ll make the roads completely safe. That isn’t true, a new study has found, because there is still a potential for errors and unexpected hazards.

A new study has found that while crashes may be reduced with the use of autonomous vehicles, they will still occur. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has stated that autonomous vehicles may reduce crashes by around a third.

It’s true that the vehicles will be able to react faster than people and won’t be able to get drunk or distracted. That doesn’t meant that they’re perfect, though. The vehicles still won’t be able to react instantaneously, so even if they put on the brakes to avoid a rear-end collision, speed, distance and other factors could play a role in whether or not the vehicle can stop in time.

Self-driving vehicles can stop crashes caused by incapacitation, such as falling asleep behind the wheel or driving while impaired, but prediction errors could still happen. That means that your vehicle could misjudge the speed of vehicles around it, drive too fast for the road condition or make other calculation mistakes that end up causing a crash.

Autonomous vehicles may be helpful in the future, and some of their features are starting to become popular in newer vehicles today. Still, there is always a risk of a collision. If you do end up involved in a crash because of a miscalculation or human error, it’s important to know your rights as a victim.