With the imminent advent of self-driving cars and other autonomous vehicles, car insurance companies are working overtime to make sure that they are ready for the huge changes that are bound to happen to basic practices on the road. Chief among these is the ability of autonomous vehicles to record extremely detailed data in real-time, which will be a huge help in determining who was ultimately responsible for a car accident.
Autonomous Vehicles Record Extensive Amounts of Data
One of the most basic things that autonomous vehicles do while they are on the road is record data. Only by recording data of the surrounding cars, pedestrians, bikers, road conditions, and weather can self-driving cars effectively navigate the roads without hitting something. If the cameras and sensors that capture this data are the car’s eyes and ears, it is the data that gets collected that is the car’s brain and memory.
Just how much data do self-driving cars collect? According to Datafloq, a leading website for news and information about the big data industry, which is aimed at empowering businesses and other industries to use data collection to maximize their efficiency, Google’s self-driving car generates nearly one gigabyte of data every second it is on the road.
This information includes everything from the exact placement, speed, and location of all surrounding objects, to the air humidity, to all of the car’s internal processes, like engine heat, battery level, and even the amount of lining on the car’s brake pads.
This Data Can Prove Fault in Car Accidents
With so much information being collected on a regular basis, it is not a small step to use it to determine who was at fault in the event of a car crash.
Car insurance companies and trial lawyers like Joel Williams often have to rely on numerous factors when they determine fault in a car accident. Many of these factors, like eyewitness testimony, are often biased or otherwise problematic. Other factors, like visibility or some road conditions, like how tight a turn is, can be subjective, and unique to every driver. Weather conditions change, and can be radically different by the time insurance personnel arrive on the scene of an accident.
All of these issues make determining who was at fault in a car accident less of a science than an art. Unfortunately, when mistakes are made, it is often the driver who ends up suffering after being blamed for a crash that they did not cause.
Cobb County Car Accident Attorney Joel Williams
These situations are just one of the many that make it important to have a car accident and personal injury lawyer like Joel Williams at your side throughout the legal process. By conducting their own investigation into a car accident, attorneys like Joel Williams can challenge any finding made by insurance companies that go against your interests, and can help get you the compensation that you need and deserve from the driver who was really at fault.
Contact Williams Elleby Howard & Easter at 833-LEGALGA.
