We’ve heard the name Elon Musk increasingly in the past year as the Tesla CEO promotes Autopilot, the company’s self-driving car program. He has made bold statements about this program’s abilities. In 2016, he stated that the self-driving automobiles would lower the risk of a car accident by an astonishing 50 percent compared to the standard, human-operated vehicle. The cars do have similar safety features such as airbags that are set to deploy in the case of a car accident at eight miles per hour or more.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that approximately 30,000 Americans die due to car accidents every year, but would Tesla be the answer to this problem? Many investors seem to be as confident as Musk, however there are still a number of barriers that make this program controversial, such as:
- state regulations that require a human driver;
- who bears liability in the event of an accident or malfunction;
- safety concerns involving the vehicle’s ability to operate in bad weather, within existing infrastructure, and interactions with human operated vehicles;
- high costs;
- ethical considerations and
- technological fears and concerns involving hacking, and hardware and software crashing or failure.
Last January, Musk said that the second-generation of Autopilot could reduce the amount of car accidents by 90%. He certainly has become more confident that this product will revolutionize how we view driving and driver/passenger safety. If he turns out to be correct, driving would drastically change.
Until Tesla’s dream becomes a reality, car accidents are still a real concern. If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, contact Nelson Personal Injury at (320)-252-1200 today for a free consultation.
Note: This article was adapted from information found via Business Insider and Electrek on the following sites:
http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-teslas-autopilot-reduces-car-accidents-by-50-2016-4
https://electrek.co/2017/01/20/tesla-autopilot-reduce-crash-rate-90-ceo-elon-musk/
