Houston Autonomous Vehicles & Driverless Cars Lawyer

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Innovation has been a driving force in the auto industry more than a century. While various technologies have made vehicles safer and easier to drive, the emergence of the self-driving vehicle is, perhaps, the single most major innovation to take hold of the auto industry since its inception.

Currently, various automakers and other major companies (like Google) are developing and testing autonomous vehicles. While industry experts expect about 10 million self-driving vehicles to be on U.S. roadways by 2020, they have also predicted that, by 2030, about 1 in every 4 cars on the road will be an autonomous vehicle.

It remains to be seen how the advent of autonomous vehicles will impact roadway travel and safety. Regardless, the lawyers at the Amaro Law Firm want you to know that we are here for you, ready to advocate your rights to recovery and justice, if you are harmed by a self-driving car (or any motor vehicle).

Driverless vehicles crash when other motorists are negligence or vehicle equipment fails. After a driverless vehicle wreck, the Amaro Law Firm can help victims get on the road to recovery.

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What is an Autonomous Vehicle and How Does It Work?

Vehicles that are capable of navigating their environment without the assistance of any human intervention are considered autonomous. These self-driving cars sense the road and analyze the world around them in order to navigate safely. However, the way that autonomous vehicles and “smart cars” were designed is reliant on lines in the road and a variety of other factors that are not always present, which can cause serious problems in certain areas of the country.

According to The Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE), there are six distinct levels of categorization used to define what “self-driving car” means in the context of hands-free automation. These include:

Level 0: Drivers are in control of the vehicle and no automation is present.
Level 1: Vehicles can help a driver with steering, braking, and accelerating.
Level 2: Vehicles can control steering, braking, and accelerating under certain circumstances, but a driver monitors the environment while performing other tasks.
Level 3: Vehicles can perform important driving tasks under certain circumstances, but a driver needs to be prepared to take control back if the system requires it.
Level 4: Vehicle systems can perform driving tasks and monitor the surrounding environment under certain circumstances and the driver does not need to assist.
Level 5: A fully automated vehicle is in control of every aspect of driving itself.

Sensors within the vehicle give autonomous self-driving cars their capability to navigate and analyze their surroundings. These vehicles can use image sensors, ultrasonic sensors, and radar sensors to detect the positions of other cars, curbs, street signs, pedestrians, and more. The future of self-driving cars looks bright, but there are many risks associated with introducing more autonomous vehicles to the road.

Risks Associated with Driverless Cars in Texas

Common Injuries in Texas Autonomous Car Accidents

Much like any other car accident, a self-driving car accident in Texas can cause severe injuries and damage to drivers, passengers, and even pedestrians. These injuries can occasionally last anywhere from a few days to the rest of your life, depending on how severe the self-driving car accident was and what kind of damage the victims suffered from it.

Autonomous vehicle crashes are dangerous for a number of reasons, but there are many things that can go wrong when a human driver is not fully in control of the vehicle that they are driving. Collisions that occur on Texas roads as a result of a self-driving car can produce devastating injuries such as:

Wounds: Glass and metal pieces are often shot at high speeds away from windshields and dashboards during self-driving car crashes. This can cause damage like scratches, deep cuts, varying degrees of burns, punctures, and various other lacerations.
Soft tissue damage: Many autonomous car accidents result in serious and impactful damage to a victim’s soft tissue. This damage can cause whiplash, torn ligaments, intense sprains, muscle aches, persistent physical pain, and strained tendons.
Broken or fractured bones: Common injuries associated with smart car accidents in Texas are broken and fractured bones, which occur after a blunt impact. This usually happens due to the speed of the automated vehicle and an inability to control when it brakes. Many of the broken bones reported occurred in the legs, arms, pelvis, knees, collarbones, face, and ribs.
Neck and back pain: One of the most frequently cited injuries that autonomous car accident victims experience is extended bouts of neck and back pain. This is related to soft tissue damage but also may be affected by nerve injuries from the accident, damaged joints, tension, or other factors related to the collision.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI): Unfortunate injuries like traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) can have serious and devastating long-term consequences for Texas victims of self-driving car accidents. These injuries can include comas, concussions, skull fractures, or hematoma (bleeding in or around the brain).
Damage to the spine: Spinal injuries often result in severe and permanent mobility issues for many victims. Experiencing an injury such as a damaged spinal cord, broken vertebrae, or even paralysis can be life-changing and difficult to move on from.

After dealing with the consequences of a severe accident that involved an autonomous car, it can be hard for residents in Texas to resume a normal life. The damage that many victims experience, both to themselves and to their personal property, can have long-running consequences on their health and their finances. Many injuries that occur after self-driving car accidents require victims to pursue physical therapy, surgery, medication, and other methods of treatment to ensure that they are able to properly heal.

Find Out More about Your Potential Claim: Contact a Houston Personal Injury Lawyer at the Amaro Law Firm