According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the new rules will go into place immediately. The hope is that these rules will provide a unified understanding of what self-driving cars and trucks must have and be able to do in order to be considered safe. These rules begin with a 15 point Safety Assessment which manufactures must document in their vehicles. The 15 points include:

Operational Design Domain – How and where the vehicle is supposed to operate

Object and Event Detection – The vehicle’s perception and response functions

Fall Back – What will occur if the self-driving system fails

Validation Methods – Testing, validation and verification of self-driving systems

Registration and Certification – NHTSA registration of all self-driving systems

Data Recording and Sharing – Data must be kept and shared to building knowledge for

crash reconstruction purposes

Post-crash Behavior – How a vehicle should react to a crash

Privacy – Considerations for the operator’s privacy

System Safety – Required engineering safety practices for system safety

Vehicle Cybersecurity – Safeguards to prevent vehicle computer hacking

Human Machine Interface- Ways for the vehicle occupants to communicate with the vehicle

Crashworthiness – Protection of occupants in crashes

Consumer Education and Training – Making sure purchasers and users know about the

limitations of self-driving vehicles

Ethical Considerations – How vehicles are programmed to address conflicting dilemmas on the road

(such as, choosing whether to hit a person or an object)

Federal, State and Local Laws – Making sure vehicles are programmed to comply with each

jurisdiction varying laws

In addition to these 15 points, the rules provide a basis for what the Federal government expects versus each state’s regulations. Generally speaking, the regulations will be overseen and amended by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which will have the policing responsibility to ensure self-driving vehicles are safe. It is hard to imagine, but such policing will include deciding if fully self-driving vehicles should have a steering wheel.

While most people think the idea of self-driving vehicles remains something which is years away, the reality is that there are nearly 20 companies which currently have vehicles driving millions of miles annually across America testing their technology. In light of the wrongful death of a Tesla driver in Florida, who was using his vehicle’s “autopilot” equipment, until today the lack of government regulation to make sure companies’ profits did not override safety concerns, was missing. Considering the DOT attributes over ninety percent of all wrongful death car and truck accidents to driver error, their hope that self-driving cars will drastically reduce that statistic, at least until such time as all vehicles are self-driving, may not be real expectation. We are however glad to see the government finally take some action to get ahead of the self-driving technology.

Most motorists are generally aware of the tests The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety do to determine the safety of cars involved in head-on and side impact crashes. Most people don’t realize that one of the most common types of car accidents involve so-called overlap crashes; that is, when the front corner of a vehicle crashes nearly head-on but actually closer to the drivers’ sides of passing vehicles, other types of overlap crashes happen when a vehicle strikes a pole or tree. These types of crashes account for nearly 25% of all serious car accident injuries. Given the increasing number of these overlap crashes and their resulting personal injuries and wrongful deaths, including nearly 1500 vehicle occupants who lost their lives in overlap crashes over the past two years.

Many of the small SUVs in the study sustained significant intrusion, over one foot, into the occupant compartment. Intrusion causes a vehicle’s instrument panel and parking brake to rapidly move toward the driver, impacting their knees and torso. Additionally, one of the vehicles even had a door during the test. If a vehicle door were to open during an actual crash, it is likely the occupant would be ejected, and killed. Death is sadly the most frequent outcome on an ejected occupant.

Miami car accident attorney Joseph Lipsky hopes those seeking to purchase a new SUV, particularly a smaller one, take a hard look at The Institute’s test results so that they purchase a vehicle which gives them the greatest chance of surviving an overlap or head-on collision.

As Volkswagen is not expected to be able to repair these cars, owners will be entitled to a cash payment or negotiating a buyback of their vehicle.

Given the negative ramifications vehicle owners will have when they try to sell or trade-in their diesel vehicles in the future it is imperative that those owners seek legal guidance to make sure they make the best financial decision. We are the Law Offices of Joseph I. Lipsky are available for free no-obligation consultations with owners of Volkswagen diesel cars to discuss the depreciation of their vehicles. Feel free to contact us at our toll-free hotline 1-888-352-5298 (888-FLA-LAW8). We are here to help.