Who’s At Fault in a Self-Driving Car Accident?
April 30, 2025
Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous vehicles, have become more mainstream in recent years. Still, they represent uncharted territory for lawmakers, drivers, and legal professionals alike. The sheer intricacy of these vehicles often makes it difficult to determine self-driving car accident liability.
In turn, victims face delays in recovering damages for medical care and lost wages, which can cause mounting financial challenges. Here’s a look into why these cases are notoriously problematic and how victims can start to make sense of them.
Why Determining Self-Driving Car Accident Liability Is So Complex
Unknown Causes
The technology that powers today’s self-driving cars is sophisticated, and many of today’s tech users don’t understand the intricate system of sensors, software, and algorithms that drive the car’s autonomous decision-making capabilities. When something goes wrong, it is challenging to pinpoint the exact failure point that caused the accident.
Car accident cases rely on being able to prove that someone else’s negligence caused your injuries, but it can be tough to prove negligence when you don’t know how the accident occurred.
New Technology
Although the idea of autonomous vehicles dates back decades, it has only recently moved from a niche concept to a mainstream topic. Because of its novelty, the legal and regulatory framework is still rapidly evolving, and there aren’t always clear guidelines for autonomous vehicle accident liability. If you suffer a brain injury or a spinal cord injury as a result of a self-driving car crash, this means you may be very confused about who you can hold responsible, especially if no driver was present.
Varying Automation Levels
Not all self-driving cars are created the same. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has developed a scale that details varying levels of vehicle automation, from momentary driver assistance to conditional automation to full automation that turns humans into passengers. To determine true liability in a self-driving car accident, you must be able to determine what role, if any, a human played in causing the accident and how much of the accident may be their fault.
Multiple Parties
Car accidents are typically looked at in terms of which driver caused the crash. When it comes to an autonomous vehicle crash, fault may be assigned to multiple parties, including a human driver, the car manufacturer, or even a third party, such as a maintenance worker or software company. In some instances, liability can even be shared between several different parties if they all acted negligently, further complicating the situation.
Were you involved in a self-driving car crash and now are unsure of who was at fault? Call Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 for a free consultation with an experienced car accident attorney who can help you get to the bottom of a complex situation.
Who Can Be At Fault in a Philadelphia Self-Driving Car Accident?
Manufacturers
Manufacturers often spend a lot of time and money hiring expert engineers to perfect a self-driving vehicle’s intricate design. However, there may still be flaws in the car’s design or construction that result in unexpected accidents. It’s possible that the manufacturer may be held responsible for issues that should have been caught during testing.
Software Developers
Autonomous vehicles are usually controlled by software that helps them understand how to make decisions in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. While that software is obviously heavily tested, that doesn’t mean the development team will be able to catch all the bugs or that the functionality won’t fail at some point. The tech company that employs these developers may be liable for an accident if it’s caused by faulty software.
Human Drivers
Depending on the automation level of the car, there might be a human driver behind the wheel helping to control it. If that driver isn’t paying attention to shifting conditions on the road or doesn’t respond to the car’s alerts that something is wrong, their lack of involvement could be considered negligent behavior. This would make that human driver at least partially — if not totally — responsible for the accident.
Third Parties
In some cases, the vehicle owner may have failed to properly maintain the car per the manufacturer’s instructions. In others, a maintenance service provider may have failed to provide adequate service or inadvertently damaged the vehicle in the course of trying to fix it. Other times, a pedestrian or another driver on the road may have caused the accident. It may be possible to hold any of these parties responsible for failing to uphold their duty of care to others.
What It Takes to Determine Fault After Crashing With an Autonomous Vehicle in Philadelphia
Forensic Investigation
An accident involving a self-driving car may have any number of root causes, from human error to software bugs to manufacturing defects or neglected maintenance. Often, those trying to determine the exact cause must rely on black box data, which isn’t always easily obtained. A thorough forensic investigation is necessary to recover the data from the car and all of its components.
Expert Witnesses
Autonomous cars can collect vast amounts of data from a lot of moving parts, including sensor readings and system logs. Once the data has been recovered via forensic investigation, it must be decoded and interpreted.
This is why Philadelphia car accident lawyers know it’s important to involve professionals with technical expertise in your case. They’ll be able to analyze car and software performance to identify manufacturing and programming errors, decision-making failures, or even system malfunctions. In turn, this makes it easier to get to the root cause of your accident.
An Experienced Attorney Can Be Key in Proving Liability
Of all the types of car accidents, few are more challenging than those involving autonomous vehicles. The novelty and complexity of the technology, along with seemingly endless possibilities for liability, make these cases especially tough to negotiate or litigate. Often, each party is hesitant to take the blame and seeks to shift it elsewhere, creating significant delays in the case.
A knowledgeable Philadelphia personal injury attorney who has worked on these unique cases often knows what is necessary to get to the bottom of them and determine who is ultimately responsible. With the help of the right lawyer, you can build a rock-solid case that gives you the best chance of a positive outcome.
Need help determining liability after an autonomous vehicle crash? Call Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 for a free consultation with an experienced car accident attorney and get the advice you need to move forward.