Driverless Trucks Could Mean Fewer Truck Accidents
If you happen to be driving along the highway in Nevada, don’t be alarmed if you look up and see a sleek, shiny, 18-wheeler driving along on its own. In early May of 2015 Freightliner introduced the Inspiration – the world’s first driverless truck made by Daimler Truck North America. Technically, they are not yet completely driverless, as a driver must sit in the cab at all times during the initial stage of the testing of these vehicles, but that human is not driving the truck. This new breed of transport uses two different kinds of radar and several cameras to decide where to go and figure out how far it is from the other vehicles on the road. For now these trucks are only permitted to operate in autonomous mode on the highway. When it is time to exit the highway the driver takes over.
Driverless trucks and human error in truck accidents
Driving a truck down endless miles of highway is grueling, boring work, which makes it dangerous for human drivers. Driver error is the leading cause of motor vehicle accidents, and many truck accidents happen when drivers get sleepy behind the wheel, get distracted typing or reading text messages on their phones and when they are speeding or driving aggressively. However, driverless trucks cannot get groggy behind the wheel, be distracted by a text message or engage in aggressive driving or speeding.
Google has had 48 driverless cars on the roads in California for six years. There have been a total of 11 accidents, none of which were deemed the “fault” of the car. Four of those accidents have occurred since September of 2014.
There are still only two of these self-driving trucks roaming the highways of Nevada, but as the laws change, and people get used to interacting with autonomous machines on the roads, in about a decade these trucks will likely be a lot more commonplace.
The NHTSA reports that more than 104,000 people were injured and 3,921 people were killed in truck crashes in 2012, which is up four percent over the year before. If driverless technology can save lives and make the roads safer, than that would be a good thing.
Christopher T. Nace works in all practice areas of the firm, including medical malpractice, birth injury, drug and product liability, motor vehicle accidents, wrongful death, and other negligence and personal injury matters.
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