New York Legal Blog

New York drivers who are concerned about the safety of autonomous vehicles may be interested to know that the programming the vehicles receive may make them unsafe. This is because the programs they are equipped with directs them to drive as humans would.

A computer science professor who conducts research on the designs of cyber-physical systems and who is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology states that autonomous vehicle industry players are employing humans to guide the driving of the autonomous vehicles. Because the vehicles are copying humans, who are prone to make mistakes, they are also copy their dangerous driving behaviors.

Even if people involved in a car accident in New York appear unhurt in the immediate moments after the impact, they might still have serious soft tissue injuries. Whiplash describes one of the most common forms of soft tissue injuries associated with motor vehicle accidents. The forces transferred into people's bodies during the collision of vehicles jolt their bodies. In the case of whiplash, the forward snap and backward recoil of the head stretches or tears ligaments, muscles or tendons in the neck.

Injuries to these types of tissues occur in other areas of the body as well. Physicians often have trouble diagnosing soft tissue injuries because the damage does not show up on an X-ray like a broken bone. Victims might not experience symptoms like pain and swelling for hours or even days after the car wreck.

Everyone who drives in New York City is aware of the dangers posed to motorists and pedestrians by drunk drivers. Few are aware, however, that fatigued drivers are just as dangerous as drunk drivers -- and more plentiful.

According to a new AAA study, drowsy drivers are just as dangerous as alcohol-impaired drivers and cause even more motor vehicle crashes that result in injuries and fatalities.