Auto Accident News: Wanted By Uber—Freelance Hackers and Driverless Cars

Matt Troutman with Troutman Law Office in Lexington KY

Call us today at 859-696-0001 or visit our website at www.kyautoaccidentattorney.com.

Uber has been celebrated and derided. Supporters of the ride-sharing company praise it for keeping drunk drivers off the road and preventing many DUI-related auto accidents every year. Critics of the company argue that drivers are distracted by its hailing application and may not always be properly insured, putting passengers and other drivers at risk.

Yet, whatever you think about the company, one thing is certain: it isn’t likely to be going away any time soon. According to the New York Times, the company placed an order for self-driving cars. As it stands, one of the biggest costs Uber faces is in its drivers. If Uber used a fleet of driverless cars, it could immensely cut its costs. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are currently working on a driverless car model. Uber reportedly pre-ordered 100,000 of the cars.

Are driverless cars really just around the corner. The New York Times reports that Google and other companies expect a $25 billion autonomous vehicle market by 2020. Yet, these cars may not be regulated to hit the road until 2025.

Of course, until the legal fine print is worked out, there won’t be any driverless cars on the road any time soon. For instance, if a driverless car in Kentucky gets into an accident, who will be liable for personal injury damages if anyone gets hurt? A UN Convention on Road Traffic explicitly states that a human and not a computer must be in control of a vehicle at all times. The U.S. government has changed federal laws that allow an autonomous car to be considered a “driver” under federal law. Yet, these are only small steps toward making driverless cars ubiquitous.

One of the big concerns about driverless cars is the danger of the computer system being hacked. If a car is hacked, it could be used for terrorist activities or could become a danger to passengers and other drivers.

According to Wired, Uber seems to be hacking its hacking problem, by offering freelancers a $10,000 bounty for discovering bugs in its system. Researchers are given an incentive to deeply analyze Uber’s code, but the company only pays hackers if they deliver a bug. Uber has been hiring more security researchers to prevent hacking into its website, app, and system. As it stands, it isn’t clear whether vulnerabilities in actual cars will be able to be addressed, because cars are owned by private individuals and not the company.

At the end of the day, if Uber chooses to use autonomous vehicles, it will probably do so after laws have been put in place to regulate the industry. Many questions remained unanswered. Responsibility for auto accidents will need to be ironed out in order to ensure that personal injury lawyers like Matt Troutman with Troutman Law Office know who to turn to for compensation if someone gets hurt. Yet many agree: the largest risk to drivers on the road isn’t technology, but other drivers. Driver error, inattention, and drug use remain the main causes of many auto accidents.