Attorney Amy Witherite, whose firm specializes in motor vehicle accidents issued a warning today to Texas motorists. She emphasized that the recent CrowdStrike software mishap should be a significant concern for regulators and anyone sharing the road with autonomous vehicles that technology isn’t foolproof.

Driverless Trucks Will Soon be On Texas Highways

Uber Freight recently announced a partnership with developer Aurora Innovation, Inc. to deploy driverless trucks for routes between Dallas and Houston, starting this fall.

“The fact remains that any technology can and does fail,” said attorney and truck safety expert Amy Witherite. “It is both vulnerable to internally generated errors as well as hacking and sabotage,” she warned.

According to published reports the problems caused by a bad update from the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, disrupted airports, hospitals, transportation systems and other businesses, creating a cascade of chaos and inconvenience.

“Despite the various unproven claims that autonomous vehicles will be safer, there continue to be real-world situations in which automation has devastatingly failed, leading to accidents and loss of life,” said Witherite. “While automated vehicles might improve safety under certain conditions, they create new risks with dangerous outcomes.”

“There are no federal safety standards for the automation,” warns Witherite. “The state of Texas has prohibited local communities from regulating these vehicles, leaving us to rely on the assurances of these for-profit companies regarding their safety.”

Too Little too Late?

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Spring 2024 Unified Regulatory Agenda, FMCSA plans to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking later this year regarding commercial motor vehicles equipped with automated driving systems. This comes despite the fact these vehicles are currently operating on public roads.

“It is one thing to have your airline reservation canceled by a computer problem and quite another to have the controls of an 80,000-truck disabled by a software or hardware issue,” noted Witherite.

“Even if driverless vehicles are programmed to stop in the event of an problem, this alone could potentially create massive traffic jams and hazards,” warns Witherite. “In other instances, we’ve seen automated vehicles take off on their own.”

Are Local Public Safety Agencies Ready?

Open Records requests for protocols for dealing with driverless trucks showed that multiple public safety agencies in Texas and Georgia had no information on how they would deal with issues such as a runaway automated vehicle or other similar issues.

The Witherite Law Group specializes in vehicle accident cases and offers crucial support for individuals involved in accidents with driverless vehicles. For more information visit their website. www.witheritelaw.com.

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