By Steven Symes 
A man seriously injured in a crash with a Tesla driver using Full Self Driving has resulted in a $745,000 lawsuit in Oregon. It’s one of the first of its kind in the state, but it signals what we might be seeing more often as automated driving technologies are used by more people.
Three young adults killed in California Tesla Cybertruck crash.
In that crash, it’s alleged the Tesla blew through a stop sign, T-boning the victim who endured fractures in his spine, face, and teeth. Instead of the victim suing Tesla, he’s suing the Tesla driver for “unreasonably relying upon autonomous vehicle technology” reports Oregon Live.
According to that report, there are four automated driving lawsuits in Oregon courts right now. Of course, many others have been filed in other states. But those figures could increase rapidly as Tesla and other automakers, as well as robotaxi services, expand nationwide.
This also isn’t the first automated driving crash we’ve seen where the victim has sued the other driver, not the automaker. We know all vehicles with driver’s aids, including autonomous drive systems, come with disclosures stating the driver is still responsible for staying aware and intervening if there’s a problem.
In fact, we recently highlighted a case out of Philadelphia where an intoxicated woman was charged with homicide as she used her Ford Mach-E’s Blue Cruise automated driving system to drive her home. The technology failed to spot a vehicle that was stopped in the road as a man was trying to help someone in a disabled vehicle, slamming into it and killing both men in the street.
Culpability if a partially of fully self-driving vehicle crashes has been a topic of debate since before the technology was being used on public roads, It seems that’s falling more on drivers and not automakers, at least for now, so beware if you use these systems you’re taking a personal risk and need to stay aware of your surroundings and what the vehicle is doing.
Image via Tesla