Riverside County Personal Injury Law Blog

Partially autonomous systems in vehicles meant to assist drivers and prevent accidents have proven popular with California motorists. Automotive safety groups, like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Thatcham in the United Kingdom, caution people against crediting autopilot features with perfect capabilities. They all require an attentive driver, and some systems should only be used under narrow circumstances.

For example, the manual for the Tesla Model S specifically states that autosteer should only be used on restricted use roads like freeways. Autosteer is designed to keep a vehicle between the painted lane lines. Self-driving features have been targeted by critics who say that some people might rely on the autonomous systems too much and misunderstand their limitations.

Technology is changing the way that many California residents drive, and not always for the better. Over-reliance on collision avoidance systems and other safety features can make drivers complacent and a danger to themselves and others. A study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has analyzed this trend and come up with some startling statistics.

For instance, 80 percent of drivers are unaware that their blind-spot monitoring system has only a limited ability to detect fast-approaching vehicles, bicyclists and pedestrians. 20 percent put so much trust in this feature that they never look for oncoming vehicles when changing lanes.

A recently released report about distracted driving appears to confirm what many California residents likely suspect. The study, which was conducted by the workforce management company Motus, discovered that a 12.3 percent increase in motor vehicle accidents between 2013 and 2017 coincided with a 22 percent rise in smartphone ownership. The researchers concluded that American drivers spend more than 100 million hours distracted by phones or other electronic devices each year. They also found that phone distraction is highest on weekdays between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

The problem is especially pronounced among mobile drivers, according to the Motus distracted driving report. The Boston-based company says that vehicle mobile workers travel about 1,200 miles each year while distracted because they take 49 percent more trips than other types of workers. These are workers who use their personal vehicles to make business-related trips. The resulting accidents cost employers about $1,680 every year for each mobile worker, according to the report.

There have been several high-profile car accidents involving self-driving technology over the last few years. However, a new study of autonomous car crashes in California indicates that human error is to blame in most cases.

Axios researchers looked at vehicle incident reports from autonomous car crashes between 2014 and 2018. During that period of time, there were 38 crashes involving moving self-driving vehicles in autonomous mode. Of those crashes, only one was linked to a technological error. There were also 24 incidents involving self-driving vehicles that were not in motion. None of those were linked to technological errors. Meanwhile, there were 19 incidents involving cars in conventional mode, which allows for human interaction. Six of those incidents were linked to technological errors. Finally, there were three incidents where humans either attacked or jumped on top of autonomous vehicles. Obviously, those incidents were not linked to technological issues.