Driving Factors of Autonomous Vehicle Discovery

• Author: Christina M. Jordan
• Pages: 2-3

Published in Litigation News Volume 45, Number 3, Winte r 2020. © 2020 by the Ame rican Bar Associati on. Reproduced with p ermission. All rights r eserved. This in formation or any por tion thereof may no t be copied or disseminate d in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

2 | S ECTION OF LITIGATION

TECHNOLOGY

utonomous vehicle and automated dr iving tech-

nology is advancing rapidly, as evidenc ed by the

increased numbe r of vehicles on the road with

these capabilitie s. More than 50 companies are

testing vehicle s with automated drivi ng tech-

nology that can operat e without interaction f rom the driver,

including Tesla vehicles that h ave the hardware needed for

limited or fu ll self-driving under cert ain conditions. While

the arti cial intelligence of autonomous vehicles provides

enhanced saf ety feature s for drivers, accidents will continue

to happen as a result of driver er ror, vehicle error, or both.

Although some st ates have enacted legislation related to

autonomous vehicles, consist ent laws and regulations governing

them are lacking . When litigating cases involvi ng autonomous

vehicle accidents, law yers should be prepared to assess who, or

what, is liable, and m anage discovery of the plethora of elec-

tronic inform ation that autonomous vehicles generate.

What Is an Auton omous Vehicle?

There are six levels of automat ion dened by the So ciety of

Automotive Engineers a nd the National Highway Trafc

Safety Ad ministration:

• Level 0 – no automation

• Level 1 – driver assist ance

• Level 2 – partia l automation

• Level 3 – limite d self-driving (conditional automation)

• Level 4 – full sel f-driving under certai n conditions

(high automation)

• Level 5 – full sel f-driving under all conditions (f ull

automation)

By Christina M. Jo rdan, Litigation N ews Associate Editor

Driving Factors of Autonomous

Vehicle Discovery

Automated driving sy stem (ADS) vehicles are those with

the capability of dr iving without driver intervention under

certain cond itions, such as those classied as L evels 3–5. All

autonomous vehicles include soft ware that controls aspects

of driving fu nctions. Currently, most autonomous vehicles on

the road are semiautonomous , which is any vehicle clas sied

lower than Level 5 and wh ich requires human operation in

certain cond itions. Semiautonomous vehicle features i nclude

parking assist ance, emergency brake application, la ne drift

detection, a nd self-drivi ng in certain conditions.

One of the benets of autonomous veh icles is the data gen-

erated to monitor traf c and detect and respond to problems.

Examples of data produc ed by autonomous vehicles include

information about the op erations of the vehicle itself, images

generated from on-board ca meras, data generated from sen-

sors that identif y where the vehicle is in relation to other

objects, and the veh icle’s speed and direc tion.

Federal Framework fo r Autonomou s Vehicle Laws

As the number of autonomous vehicle s on the road grows,

there is an increa sed interest in gene rating autonomous vehi-

cle policies and laws acros s the states. Currently, a federal

framework for autonomous vehicle law does not e xist, as the

technology is advanci ng more quickly than the legal system

can adapt. There is a lso a lack of state and federal codied

standards and b est practices to aid in responding to lit igation

claims involving autonomous veh icles.

The National Hig hway Trafc Safet y Administration has

provided guidance i n support of automated vehicle technol-

ogy, including techn ical assistance to states for conside ration

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