Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson

California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson

For some time, California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has been at the forefront in discussing self-driving autonomous vehicle accidents on the internet and what it means not only for victims of self-driving vehicle accidents, but also for personal injury lawyers.

Today with robotaxis having already being tested on the roads for years, now being offered to the public and with more and more car manufacturers announcing their plans to build self-driving vehicles, robotaxis available where you live are just around the corner as are, unfortunately, robotaxi accidents.

California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is ready to assist victims of robotaxi accidents when the day arrives that autonomous robotaxis obtain wide spread regulatory approval and are on the road throughout California. For while robotaxis may save lives, no one doubts that there will still be accidents involving robotaxis once they are widely in use.

Recent Developments Noted by California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson

In two recent developments related to self-driving taxis, self-driving Waymo minivans are available now as of July 2019 on Lyft in Arizona.

In Paris, in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Paris hopes to be able to provide visitors arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport with self-driving flying taxis to transport the arriving passengers to one of 10 aerodromes in the region around Paris.

The entities involved in the project are Airbus, and the RATP regional transport which manages Parisian public transport services.

California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson: Tesla and Waymo Robotaxis Are Coming To A Neighborhood Near You

In April 2019, Elon Musk predicted that Tesla will have one million robotaxis on the road in 2020. He went on to say, they won’t be in all jurisdictions since they won’t have regulatory approval everywhere, but he does expect such approval at least somewhere in 2020.

Elon Musk isn’t simply predicting robotaxis with drivers ready to take the controls. He is predicting that within two years Tesla will be making robotaxis without steering wheels or pedals and robotaxis being operated in 2020 with on one in them except for the robotaxi passengers.

While Wall Street remains skeptical, no one can deny that Tesla is benefitting from Tesla vehicles already on the road to improve its software. To be successful in its robotaxi venture, however, Wall Street feels Tesla would have to beat Nvidia in hardware, Google in their software and build a better ride-hailing service than the current ride hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.

Wall Street analysts have also suggested that removing safety drivers in robotaxis will take more years before such a driverless robotaxi service can be operated in such large scale as Tesla hopes to do.

However, analysts also feel that if Tesla does execute its plan for a wide scale driverless autonomous robotaxi service, combined with its EV technology, such a ride hailing service could give Tesla a huge advantage in EV autonomous vehicles in future years.

While some compare Elon Musk to P.T. Barnum, there is no denying his genius or his ability to turn a phrase, and a bold one at that. At his Tesla Autonomy Investor Day on April 22, 2019, Elon Musk stated that owning any car other than a Tesla in 3 years will be like owning a horse.

To quote Elon Musk, “If you buy a car that does not have the hardware for full self-driving, it is like buying a horse. And the only car that has the hardware for self-driving is a Tesla.”

Under the ride-hailing service envisioned by Elon Musk, owners of Tesla robotaxis may also be able to choose who can borrow their Tesla vehicles and additionally will be able to limit their availability to specific times during the day.

Alphabet (Google) – Owned Waymo Robotaxis Are Already In Use. GM and Ford Fleets Are Also In The Works As Are Daimler, Volkswagen And Other Competitors

Besides Tesla’s plans to operate a ride-hailing service, GM’s Cruise, for instance, is planning to operate a ride-sharing company as is Zoox, a self-driving car startup.

The question, though, is whether consumers will feel confident to use an autonomous robotaxi when they need to be driven somewhere, or to buy them for their personal use with the possible advantage in the future of being able to allow them to be used as robotaxis when they’re not using them at work, at home or while at college.

With the billions being spent by car manufacturers like Tesla, GM and Ford and with other vehicle manufacturers spending billions more on self-driving technology, it’s clear these auto, SUV and truck manufacturers believe the answer to that question is, “yes.” If the technology can be perfected to make autonomous robotaxi vehicles safe, consumers ever more conscious of their spending will find robotaxis and vehicles they can both use themselves and also allow them to be used as robotaxis when they’re not using them, will find them attractive.

After an accident in which an Uber vehicle driving in autonomous mode was involved in a fatal pedestrian accident in 2018, however, Uber’s testing program, was suspended by the Governor of Arizona.

Waymo, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, meanwhile has been testing their autonomous ride-hailing brand to compete with Uber and Lyft in and around Chandler, Arizona. However, Waymo’s vehicles have had their tires slashed and been pelted with rocks by locals unhappy to have Waymo’s cars being tested on their roads with the safety of locals being part of the test.

If this shows anything, it’s that consumers will have a very small tolerance for failure, which in this case, is anything other than complete safety and an absence of any fatalities involved in the use of robotaxis.

Consumers aren’t just worried whether such vehicles will be allowed before they’re completely safe, they’re also worried what effect of self-driving technology and driverless cars will have on their jobs. Trucking and logistics employees fall into that category of people worried about their jobs when autonomous vehicles are expanded to big rig and other heavy duty trucks for which there is currently a shortage of drivers.

In December 2018, Waymo announced Waymo One, their self-driving ride-hailing service in the Phoenix metro area of Arizona. Waymo expects to expand it both nationally and internationally.

Waymo’s plan is reportedly to continue to use volunteers to test their vehicles and to gradually introduce their self-driving cars to different areas before their service is ready to be widely available to the public. Waymo wants to avoid bad press that results from avoidable crashes which could set their program back by years. By the time Waymo is a recognized name like Lyft and Uber, Waymo hopes to have tested nearly every road that’s already been mapped by Google in detail.

Waymo has already received approval to begin testing cars without backup drivers in the Silicon Valley in California as well where Tesla’s Autopilot team is also based. Waymo expects to begin selling rides to customers gradually in more areas, but before that produces significant income for the company, Waymo may make even more money by and licensing its LIDAR laser sensor technology to companies who won’t compete with its robotaxi business.

If Robotaxis Can Still Be Confused, What Is The Best Technology for Robotaxis?

It’s been reported that autonomous vehicles utilizing self-driving technology can still be confused. They can allegedly be confused by things as common as a rainstorm.

Nearly every company developing autonomous vehicles plans to use some combination of either radar, ultrasound, or LIDAR laser sensors. That is, except for Tesla.

“Anyone relying on LIDAR is doomed,” Elon Musk has said. “LIDAR is a fools errand,” in the words of Elon Musk.

Elon Musk believes the expensive LIDAR sensors are unnecessary, even ridiculous when Tesla sees its cameras as the key to the future. Tesla currently uses a combination of GPS, maps, radar and ultrasonic sensors, though not LIDAR. Instead, Elon Musk sees a future where cameras will be able to best see through adverse weather conditions such as rainstorms.

Proponents of LIDAR on the other hand believe the laser sensor system can see through weather conditions better than cameras, at least existing camera systems. The future will tell who is right.

Remote Control for Robotaxis That Malfunction

What will happen when a robotaxi malfunctions? Who will take control of the vehicle? Who will be there to exchange information with the operators of other cars involved in a crash or communicate with the police?

One plan is for teleoperators to be stationed in some type of robotaxi command center far away from the scene of the accident. But that raises other questions. Will the teleoperators be sufficiently trained and knowledgeable in the laws of the state in which the accidents occur? Will their command center even be within the U.S.? And how many robotaxis will one teleoperator safely be able to watch and be ready to takeover their controls or deal with an accident when they malfunction?

In-Ride Entertainment and Advertising

If you thought your ride-hailing ride in an autonomous vehicle would be provide you with peace and quiet for your journey, think again. Expect in-ride entertainment, advertising and perhaps even video on demand for longer journeys.

Self-Driving Accident Update – A Concern for California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson

A concern for California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is how long it will take to obtain a traffic accident report which draws a conclusion as to the cause of an accident which involves one or more self-driving vehicles which may have been in an autopilot mode at the time of the accident. Accidents involving Tesla cars in recent years provide a startling example of the time it can take before the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Transportation Safety Board can draw their conclusions.

While self driving car accident lawyers want the best possible investigation to be performed following an accident involving self-driving cars, it is difficult to see how the two federal government agencies working alongside local police, sheriff and highway patrol agencies will be able to handle the volume of such accidents when self-driving cars and robotaxis are common or how personal injury lawyers in California and other states will be able to handle these cases in a timely manner as well if it can take years before the final traffic accident reports are ready.

As an example, it’s now been reported that during a fatal March 1, 2019 accident involving a 2018 Tesla Model 3 in Delray Beach, Florida, and that this could be the third fatal Tesla crash with the Tesla driver-assistance program, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

If this is true, at the time of the Tesla accident, some are coming to the conclusion that the Tesla autopilot system still can’t differentiate the broad side of an 18-wheeler big rig truck from a highway overpass and that both the system and Tesla drivers are failing to keep the driver engaged in preventing accidents such as crashing into tractor-trailer trucks perpendicular to the Tesla on the road ahead. However, the final conclusions are still months if not years away.

What is concerning, is that the 2019 accident is far too similar to a 2016 fatal accident which, like this accident, involved a Tesla vehicle being driven in autopilot mode, and a tractor-trailer truck crossing the driver’s path. In a 2016 accident, a Tesla Model S also collided with a tractor-trailer which was crossing the driver’s path.

Even as of mid-May 2019, two and a half months after the fatal Tesla accident, the National Highway Transportation Safety Board is still evaluating all the data and has not concluded its investigation.

If this type of delay in providing a traffic accident report which determines the cause of an accident involving a self-driving car accident or any car in self-driving mode, it is difficult to comprehend how personal injury lawyers will be able to obtain traffic accident reports in a timely manner as they are able to do now with most traffic accident reports being completed in 7 to 10 days.

In May 2016, the driver of a Tesla Model S was killed near Williston, Florida while the Autopilot was reportedly engaged when he crashed into a tractor trailer truck that sheared off the roof of the Tesla he was driving.

It should be noted that in the 2016 accident, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration essentially found that the driver of the Tesla in this incident was not paying attention to the road as he should have been and exonerated Tesla from fault.

While in the 2016 Tesla accident, the Tesla was equipped with the first generation of Tesla’s autopilot system, the 2019 Tesla accident involved a Tesla car equipped with the second generation of Autopilot. And yet, it appears the system still has trouble recognizing large white trucks passing in front of Tesla vehicles and with drivers failing to maintain their grip of the steering wheel to take action if the Tesla cars fail to recognize such a hazard.

As car safety experts have noted, autopilot systems are good at detecting moving vehicles and other objects in motion, but are not great at detecting stationary objects. And large white stationary trucks can look like the sky or an overpass, and rather than slamming on the brakes every time the driver approaches an overpass, the systems can unfortunately ignore the large stationary 18-wheeler truck on the path ahead.

Unless the designers of autopilot systems can address this problem satisfactorily, self-driving vehicles will continue to be involved in fatal and serious injury accidents and the confidence self-driving car manufacturers hope to install in the car buying public will not be there when it comes time for them to purchase their next car.

In a fatal accident involving a Tesla Model X in March 2018 in Mountain View, California, the driver had received warnings to take control of the wheel, but failed to do so. This accident too is still being investigated by both the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Transportation Safety Board more than a year after the crash.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is also investigating a fatal 2016 Tesla Model S accident in Davie, Florida in which it is unclear if the Tesla had Autopilot engaged, a January 2018 Tesla crash in which the Tesla struck a fire truck in Culver City, California in which the Tesla may have been traveling in Autopilot mode, and a May 2018 Tesla accident in Florida which killed two teenagers but which was not in Autopilot mode.

Call California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson for Your Self-Driving Vehicle Accident

The future in which robotaxis can be hailed from every street corner is fast approaching, faster than nearly everyone predicted. There will be numerous companies offering driverless robotaxis, possibly with different technologies, and likely all with in-ride entertainment and advertising to make the companies more money, and your ride either more enjoyable, annoying, or simply as a means to take your mind off the fact that there is no driver in the car or van in which you’re a passenger.

There will be accidents. Count on it. And every time there is an accident, consumers will be a little more wary before getting into a robotaxi, at least for a short while. But California Robotaxi Accident Attorney Sebastian Gibson will be ready to speak to you about your accident and to assist you and your family with your robotaxi accident, whether it occurred in Palm Springs or Palm Desert, Newport Beach or elsewhere in Orange County, or anywhere in California.

California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson has over 40 years of experience and has been named a 2022 Top Lawyer by the prestigious Palm Springs Life magazine for 12 years in a row. He’s also been awarded a ranking of “Superb” by Avvo (their highest category) which ranks Attorneys all across the nation.

If you’ve been injured in a robotaxi accident anywhere in California, call California Robotaxi Accident Lawyer Sebastian Gibson today at (760) 776-1810.