Forbes – An Injury Lawyer Says What GM’s Cruise Robotaxi Might Face After Dragging Woman
See full article on Forbes by Brad Templeton
In October, General Motors’ Cruise robotaxi unit was involved in a incident where a woman was thrown in front of their vehicle after being hit by another car. They say they braked hard, but could not readily avoid running her over, but after they came to a stop, they soon tried to pull off to the right, dragging the victim and ending up with a wheel on her leg. The victim reportedly remains in hospital with serious injuries.
It’s possible the victim might bring a lawsuit against Cruise, as well as the hit-and-run driver who hit her—this driver has not yet been found. While they probably would not face liability for hitting her while trying to brake, their vehicle’s decision to start moving again, dragging and pinning her, probably worsened her injuries, and they could be liable for that. I contacted Landon Vivian, who is Managing Attorney for The Barnes Firm in the Bay Area, a firm which specializes in car accidents and injury cases, for information on what typically happens in these cases. This case, of course, is quite unlike most of the cases seen every day on the roads, because of the presence of the robot. We’re not used to dealing with robots harming people, and juries are likely to react quite differently to it than they do to human drivers.
Car accidents are probably the most common tort in the world, and they’re usually settled and handled by insurance companies. They often just involve ordinary people with insurance policies, and if serious, they are settled for the full amount of the liability insurance. More rarely they have deep pocketed defendants, like General Motors, and the story is different.
There are three parties with fault in this incident. In California, the jury will be asked to portion out the blame. They will assign some of it to the woman, who was crossing against the red light/don’t walk sign at a fairly reckless time. (”Jaywalking” was recently decriminalized in California, but it still brings about liability.) Surely a great portion will go to the driver of the Nissan Sentra who fled the scene—even though he or she might not be found. For the dragging, some may go to Cruise.
See full article on Forbes
