Self-Driving Cars Will Make Accident Claims Easier

Casey B. Mulligan is an economics professor at the University of Chicago. He is the author of “The Redistribution Recession: How Labor Market Distortions Contracted the Economy.”

Getting injured or killed by an autonomous vehicle may seem like a nightmarish Hollywood movie, but technology trends and basic economics are pointing the real world in that direction.

Cars will one day drive themselves, and it is hoped that they will be safer than vehicles with humans at the controls, because machines don’t get tired, distracted or drunk. However, even when robots attain superior driving skills, they may still create damage in accidents as human drivers do.

Perfect driving records - for driverless cars or any other type of vehicle - may indicate that cars aren’t being driven fast enough to balance safety and driver convenience. States routinely adjust the speed limits on their highways to balance safety with drivers’ desire to get to their destination more quickly. A famous economics study found that seatbelt laws did not necessarily save lives because drivers responded to the laws by driving faster and getting in more accidents (each accident less fatal). For these reasons it is possible that regulators will allow robot-driven cars to travel at faster speeds than current speed limits, and more driving is likely in hazardous conditions.

This is not to criticize self-driving cars. They will be welcome, but their achievements may ultimately be more heavily weighted toward passenger convenience than safety.

Although some auto-industry experts are concerned that crashes involving robots will create excessive legal costs, insurance companies may have an easier time settling claims against robot-driven vehicles.

When two human drivers get in a crash, each may recall the accident details differently, and their conflicting memories may make it hard to come to an agreement as to who should pay for the damage. Self-driving cars will literally have photographic memories of their accidents. Other “witnessing” self-driving cars may be nearby an accident, and photographically record the event, too.

With less uncertainty as to what really happened in an accident, there will be less reason for a prolonged legal battle. Of course, assessing the severity of human injuries and the amount of compensation they deserve will remain complex and emotional issues.

Insurance markets have a variety of ways of adapting to the new technology. Owners of robot-driven cars could be required to carry liability insurance, just as many states require of the owners of human-driven cars. Presumably the liabilities of the manufacturers of driverless cars will not be much different than the liabilities of the manufacturers of traditional cars that had a mechanical failure that resulted in injury.

If you are one of the unlucky people who will be injured by a robot-driven car - inevitably, people will be so injured - you or your surviving kin can expect a relatively swift legal settlement. And the rest of society will enjoy getting places more quickly and conveniently.