Smartphone lovers — and social media addicts — who have to put their cellphones aside for a few minutes to drive their vehicles from A to B are no doubt excited by the idea of driverless cars. After all, it would seem that giving up complete control of your car to a robot driver would give you more time to focus on other activities, like reading, sending emails, texting or updating your social media profile.
The problem is, driverless technology is not there yet. According to information from fatal crashes that involved fully driverless and semi-driverless cars, the current technology available could have a way of giving drivers a false sense of security that leads to more distracted driving accidents.
The problem centers around the fact that people who are operating self-driving and semi-self-driving cars still need to pay attention at all times so that they can intervene at certain moments to avoid a crash. However, because a self-driving car takes over almost all aspects of driving for most of the time, drivers in these cars could become complacent — even bored — and tempted to pick up their cellphones, daydream or become prone to accidentally falling asleep.
In 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSA) reported that distracted driving caused 3,450 deaths in the United States. This is a serious issue for all drivers, and — although driverless technology seems to promise a future time when becoming distracted on the road won’t matter — at this time, fully and completely safe driverless car technology continues to be firmly entrenched in the category of “science fiction.”
Were you or a family member seriously hurt in a crash caused by a distracted driver in Colorado? Our law firm is available to listen to your story and help you assess your legal rights and options.