When a driverless car crashes, who is to blame?

New Report Examines Safety and Liability Issues as Driverless Cars Hit the Roads

Driverless vehicles, or robot cars, are already on the roads, but many proposals to ensure safety and accountability would in fact give robot car manufacturers legal immunity for injuries caused by their products, a new report from the American Association for Justice warns.

Driven to Safety: Robot Cars and the Future of Liability outlines potential safety gaps that could place the public at risk, and tells how robot car manufacturers are pushing for measures that will allow them to avoid accountability when their products injure or kill people. The report, released today, recommends policies to ensure that the civil justice system, rather than regulators, legislators, or the industry itself, serves as the primary forum for determining safety requirements and liability for failing to protect the public.

“Every time a new auto technology has been introduced, the civil justice system has played a key role in ensuring its safety,” said AAJ President Julie Braman Kane. “Robot cars show tremendous promise for saving lives, but policymakers must ensure that when a robot car crashes, the injured, the families of those killed, or taxpayers don’t get stuck with the bill for the manufacturer’s failing.” read more »

VW mulls action against Piech over diesel claims against board

Volkswagen announced it was weighing steps against ex-Chairman Ferdinand Piech after media reports said he had informed key supervisory board members about potential diesel cheating six months before the scandal became public.

While the allegations about whether Piech had informed the company's top directors as early as March 2015 could not immediately be verified, Volkswagen's strong rejection of the claims signals a deepening rift with the ousted chairman. read more »

Takata to plead guilty February 27: court documents

Japan's Takata Corp is set to plead guilty Feb. 27 in federal court in Detroit to a single felony count of wire fraud to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into ruptures of its air bag inflators linked to at least 16 deaths worldwide, according to a court filing Tuesday.

Last month, the auto parts firm agreed to the guilty plea as part of a $1 billion settlement in the world's largest ever recall.

U.S. prosecutors also charged three former senior Takata executives in Japan with falsifying test results to conceal the inflator defect linked the recall of about 100 million air bag inflators

Takata has agreed to pay a $25 million fine, $125 million in a victim compensation fund, including for future incidents, and $850 million to compensate automakers for massive recall costs, the Justice Department said. The auto parts supplier will be required to make significant reforms and be on probation and under the oversight of an independent monitor for three years. read more »

UK Parliament: Reimburse total cost to car-owners for faulty designs

To prevent malpractices by automakers, there may be provisions to compensate the owner of the vehicle suitably or reimburse the total cost in case of faulty designs, a parliamentary panel today recommended.

"The Committee thinks that the owner of vehicles may also be compensated suitably and the manufacturer may reimburse the total cost of vehicle to its owner, if the vehicle is found faulty," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture said in its report on Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016 tabled today.

The 31-member panel chaired by Mukul Roy termed the clause for recall of vehicles as one of the most important amendments saying it speaks about recalling of vehicles which may cause harm to environment and may be risky for its occupants including driver and other road users.

"The Committee hopes that inclusion of this section (clause 38) will go a long way in curbing the malpractices by the manufacturers," it said. read more »

You might not want to open a rear window if you’re driving a Nissan Altima.

The company is recalling nearly 363,000 of the midsize cars worldwide from the 2015 through 2017 model years because the doors might open if a rear window is lowered.

Documents posted Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that the latch and lock cable in the doors may not have been routed properly at the factory. read more »

New lawsuit could force used car dealers to repair recalled vehicles

Recalls have been making headlines for the past several years, but on used car lots, recalled vehicles aren't always easy to spot. That could change thanks to a new lawsuit filed against the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The recent crop of high-profile recalls began with General Motors' faulty ignition switches, which were ultimately linked to 124 deaths and 275 injuries. Takata's fatally flawed airbags have resulted in fewer deaths but, on the other hand, they've launched the largest automotive recall in U.S. history--one that isn't likely to wrap up for years. And of course, Volkswagen's Dieselgate fiasco has been causing headaches for Audi, Porsche, and VW owners since September 2015.

All of that attention on recalled vehicles has generated plenty of concerns among consumers and more than a few bills aimed at protecting the public from exploding airbags, fire hazards, and the like. One of those bills even became a law: in 2015, both houses of Congress passed the Surface Transportation Reauthorization & Reform Act of 2015.

Among the many regulations and updates included in the Act was one requiring rental companies to repair recalled vehicles before making them available to customers. Those companies had balked at such proposals for years, but the families of people who'd been injured or killed in recalled, unrepaired cars won the day.