Uber/Ride Sharing

It seems like the future of ride share is the development of autonomous vehicles and other forms of automated transportation. The safety ramifications related to this new technology cannot be overstated. Thankfully, the federal government has been working on a solution to foreseeable problems in this arena. We are reserving judgment on the effectiveness of the solutions being proposed in Washington. We are grateful that an effort is being made. The Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Frank Pallone (NJ Democrat), said yesterday , “We are working on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to draft a self-driving car bill that will help ensure that these life-saving technologies are safety deployed.”

To date, the federal government has offered guidance but no hard and fast rules (law) regulating self driving vehicles. From the prospective of the consumer, this is problematic. The major players in the self driving vehicle landscape, like Uber, Lyft, Google and other ride share companies, stand to benefit from lack of oversight. The less regulation, the more profit for these corporate behemoths. The problem with this approach is the lack of accountability to the consumer. Dollars and cents are not the only measure of success. Safety should be the number one concern of all of the implementers of this radical new technology. Autonomous vehicles are an opportunity to change the world for the better. Leaving the early regulation of this technology in the hands of Uber and Google is the same as letting the fox guard the hen house.

We have vast experience with ride share litigation. Our clients have benefited greatly from our experience in this specialized area of the law. We have pioneered techniques to overcome the ride share world’s argument that the drivers are independent contractors. If you have been injured in a ride share vehicle, call us for a consultation at no cost.

The Atlantic published an article today in the wake of the accident that caused a pedestrian to be killed by a self-driving Uber vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. A link to that article can be found here. This is hardly the first incident involving a wrongful death at the hand of a self driving vehicle. In 2016 in Florida, a Tesla operating is auto-pilot mode struck another vehicle and killed the driver. The article asks the question, “What are the legal implications in accidents involving self driving car?” While the answer might seem obvious, there are quite a few factors that will impact the answer.

First, the article raises the point that this accident happened in Arizona which has declared itself open for business when it comes to testing and operating self driving automobiles. Arizona’s Governor signed an executive order in August of 2015 which required the Arizona Department of Transportation to take steps to support the testing and operation of self-driving vehicles on Arizona’s roads. An investigation into what Arizona did or did not do to make sure the roads were safe for self-driving cars and the general public needs to be investigated.

Obviously, UBER in this case, or whatever company owns the self-driving vehicle involved in the accident is the first place to investigate when it comes to determining who is at fault for an accident involving an autonomous vehicle. Other self driving-vehicle companies like Lyft, Waymo, Tesla, GM and Intel have set down roots in Arizona too. Since we know that 96+% of all automobile accidents are the result of driver error, this is the obvious place to start any investigation.

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