Autonomous Systems Technology in Trucking: Unforeseen and Hidden Litigation Challenges

Description

The promise of autonomous systems and vehicles is fewer and less severe accidents, with the implied benefit that when accidents do occur, autonomous systems can provide indisputable, objective data about what happened making claims quicker and less expensive to resolve. In reality, these systems add levels of complexity that require specialized knowledge, add unavoidable costs to litigation, increase the number and types of disputes, and increase the number of defendants and insurers--all of which actually make resolution more challenging.

First and foremost, all parties must appreciate that autonomous systems can generate gargantuan amounts of data that has to be stored and preserved somewhere, and then ultimately reviewed. Even with AI and TAR, the task could be extremely expensive, especially if discovery is requested for similar vehicles over time and with respect to testing of the systems. Debates can be expected over what this data could have or should have communicated to the parties.

Because both plaintiffs and defendants will be looking to transfer or spread liability among as many defendants as possible, more defendants will be included and more product liability claims can be expected in accident cases. Design and warning defect claims are inevitable. Litigants can expect trials within trials, where the consequences reach far beyond the case at hand. Plaintiffs and defendants may join hands against hardware and software vendors, or multiple defendants may look to blame drivers. Alliances and strategies in these cases may shift.

Listen as the panel discusses the challenges and emerging solutions when defending autonomous vehicle litigation, whether heavy trucking businesses or vehicle manufacturers.