by Patrick Cleary, Bowman & Brooke, LLP
News articles about self-driving vehicles are omnipresent as 2017 begins, suggesting that humans will soon no longer need to worry about driving. If technological and infrastructure advances occur at their predicted pace, automated vehicle technologies will assist, supplant and possibly replace human drivers over the next twenty years. This paradigm shift creates the real promise for dramatically reduced motor vehicle accidents and associated fatalities, injuries and damages.
But it also creates the real possibility that the plaintiffs' bar will shift their focus from assigning fault to the driver of accident vehicles to the manufacturers of vehicles involved in accidents. In effect, the plaintiffs' bar will argue that the manufacturer of any vehicle equipped with automated driving technologies is liable when said vehicle has an accident. For example, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ("NHTSA") concluded last week that Tesla's Autopilot system did not have a safety-related defect that contributed to a fatal 2016 accident in Florida, it is not a stretch to think that the plaintiffs' bar would make a different argument that vehicles with autopilot systems are "strictly" responsible.(1)
We expect the plaintiffs' bar to argue that the introduction of automated driving technologies, regardless of form or function, mean that the vehicle itself has the ultimate control over what happens on the roadway. To put it simply, the North Carolina plaintiffs' bar will argue the doctrine of last clear chance will shift from the negligent driver to the motor vehicle manufacturer, opening up new avenues of recovery for injured drivers from their vehicle manufacturer.
If the plaintiffs' bar prevails, it would be a dramatic shift in North Carolina product liability law, creating a quasi-strict liability regime and a repudiation of contributory negligence outside of legislative enactment. But this argument presents a false dichotomy between automated and non-automated vehicles and ignores well-established doctrines of personal responsibility inherent in North Carolina law.
This article clarifies the development and introduction of automated vehicle technologies and then evaluates these technologies within the context of North Carolina product liability law. As a defense bar, we have the obligation to rebut plaintiffs' arguments, showing that automated vehicle technologies do not replace the duty of a driver nor do they supplant North Carolina product liability law.
Development of Automated Vehicle Technologies
Motor vehicles have not and will not immediately shift from completely human controlled to fully autonomous. Instead, motor vehicles will transition from fully human controlled to human controlled but machine assisted, to machine controlled in certain locations then possibly fully automated. An example of this shift was discussed by Dr. Gill Pratt, Toyota Research Institute CEO at the January 2017 Consumer Electronics Show. (2)
For a more detailed description of this transition, in September 2016, NHTSA released the Federal Automated Vehicles Policy. (3) In the Policy, NHTSA differentiates vehicles on "who does what, when" by adopting the SAE Levels of Automation. There are six distinct levels of automation:
At SAE Level 0, the human driver does everything;
At SAE Level 1, an automated system on the vehicle can sometimes assist the human driver conduct some parts of the driving task (an example is vehicle equipped with cruise control);
At SAE Level 2, an automated system on the vehicle can actually conduct some parts of the driving task, while the human continues to monitor the driving environment and performs the rest of the driving task (an example is dynamic cruise control or some types of electronic stability control);
At SAE Level 3, an automated system can both actually conduct some parts of the driving task and monitor the driving environment in some instances, but the human driver must be ready to take back control when the automated system requests (the Tesla auto-pilot system is at this level);
At SAE Level 4, an automated system can conduct the driving task and monitor the driving environment, and the human need not take back control, but the automated system can operate only in certain environments and under certain conditions (vehicles at Level 4 could control themselves on dedicated roadways); and
At SAE Level 5, the automated system can perform all driving tasks, under all conditions that a human driver could perform them.
There are no commercially available levels for sale at SAE Levels 4 or 5. Indeed, the vast majority of vehicles for sale today are SAE Level 1 or 2 vehicles; vehicle automated driving technologies simply assist the driver. And these technologies have been installed on vehicles for an extended period of time, helping drivers safely control their vehicle on the road. What this means is nothing new. Human drivers have the obligation and responsibility to monitor and control the vehicle – there are no vehicles currently available where the driver can abrogate this responsibility to the vehicle itself.
North Carolina Product Liability Law and Automated Vehicles
North Carolina product liability statutes and case law confirm tried and true principles: there is no strict liability in tort, manufacturers must exercise reasonable care in designing and manufacturing their products, product users must exercise reasonable care and contributory negligence is a complete defense to product liability causes of action. N.C. Gen. Stat. §99B-1.1 (“There shall be no strict liability in tort in product liability actions.”); Smith v. Fiber Controls Corp., 300 N.C. 669, 678, 268 S.E.2d 504, 509–10 (1980); N.C. Gen. Stat. §99B-4(3). See also Nicholson v. Am. Safety Util. Corp., 346 N.C. 767, 773, 488 S.E.2d 240, 244 (1997) (noting that the statute “does not create a different rule for products liability actions; it clarifies the common law contributory negligence standard with respect to these actions.”); These tried and true principles provide clear guidance to manufacturers, litigants and the courts when motor vehicle product liability actions occur.
In particular, contributory negligence limits the ability of injured drivers to recover from a vehicle manufacturer. Unlike in many other jurisdictions, injured North Carolina drivers cannot use the doctrine of strict liability to seek recovery from their vehicle manufacturer. These statutory limitations on recovery are consistent with North Carolina tort and product liability law, and ensure that recovery does not occur when a driver fails to exercise reasonable care.
As discussed above, the current introduction of automated vehicle technologies does not replace the need for a driver's reasonable care, but assist the driver in exercising that reasonable care. Any other argument misrepresents North Carolina law and the current status of automated vehicle technologies.
Conclusion
North Carolina's tried and true doctrines of contributory negligence, personal responsibility and reasonable care do not change because of autonomous vehicles and driver assistance technologies. Motor vehicle drivers have the firmly established responsibility to control their vehicles with reasonable care. While automated vehicle technologies will prevent accidents and reduce harm, they do not excuse or replace a driver's non-delegable duty to control their vehicle. The defense bar has an obligation to challenge plaintiffs' attempts to circumvent these tried and true doctrines in motor vehicle accident litigation involving vehicles equipped with automated vehicle technologies.
Endnotes:
(1) https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/inv/2016/INCLA-PE16007-7876.PDF. Of note, NHTSA classified the Tesla Autopilot as "the Autopilot system is an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that requires the continual and full attention of the driver to monitor the traffic environment and be prepared to take action to avoid crashes."
(2) http://corporatenews.pressroom.toyota.com/releases/2017-ces-press-conference-pratt.htm
(3) https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles
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