Driverless Car Accidents? That’s Not Supposed to Happen!

Driverless car accidents are happening at about twice the rate as cars with drivers. Wait a minute … that isn’t supposed to be how it works. These autonomous cars are set up to avoid accidents and obey the laws, so what is going on to cause such an extraordinarily high number of driverless car accidents?

 

The answer is simple: human error. Because the driverless cars are set up to obey all traffic laws – every time, without exception, this becomes problematic when they’re on roads with humans who are apt to “bend the rules of traffic” from time to time. As a result, motorists are crashing into these driverless cars at an alarming rate.

 

Can Driverless Car Accidents Be Avoided?

So the next question is … in an effort to help avoid driverless car accidents, should they be tweaked to also bend the rules to help them stay clear of crashes? At the moment, everyone agrees the answer is no. The experts say they’ll keep the cars navigating at the speed limit and obeying all the other traffic laws – and a major reason for that is to protect the positive image of their vehicles. They surmise (probably correctly) that they would be in deep trouble if the driverless car was the cause of an accident during a time in which it was “bending the rules of traffic.”

 

So, while the autonomous cars have never been at fault of any accidents (they’re typically caused by being hit from behind or struck by motorists who just aren’t used to people following traffic laws down to the last detail), the high rate of driverless car accidents continues to be a major area of concern.

 

For now, the only change being made is to make driverless cars more “aggressive,” but still well within the boundaries of the law, in an effort to allow them to get into the normal traffic flow. But it’s undoubtedly going to take time for driverless car engineers and “regular” motorists to get used to interacting with each other on the roadways.

 

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