A guy goes out to eat, has a few drinks, and on the way home his car slams into several police officers involved in a traffic stop in a blocked-off lane of an expressway.
Who to blame? The man driving the car, the restaurant that served him the liquor, or the manufacturers of the automobile?
The car’s manufacturers? How could they be responsible for a driver driving drunk? The owners of the restaurant that served him the liquor? Unless he’d been visibly intoxicated, how could they have known that he’d had too much to drink? The man behind the wheel? Surely, he’s the one responsible.
What if he wasn’t the one driving? There’s no law against riding while intoxicated, or riding under the influence. No RWI, no RUI. In that case, the person who was driving is responsible, right? But what if no one was driving?
Not long ago, that would have seemed like a ridiculous question. How could no one be driving? Someone had to be driving.
It’s not a ridiculous question anymore – not now, with the advent of self-driving vehicles.
The scenario outlined above did, in fact, occur: on Feb. 27 on the Eastex Freeway, when a Tesla Model X on autopilot (its besotted owner inside, but not operating the vehicle) plowed into police officers in a blocked-off lane.
Those police officers are now suing Tesla, as well as Pappas Restaurants, owners of Pappasito’s Cantina where the over-serving of liquor allegedly occurred.
How the restaurant chain can be held liable is hard to fathom, given that the owner of the Tesla was not driving. He might as well have been riding in a cab.
Tesla, on the other hand, may have a problem. According to the suit filed by the police officers, there have been, in the last three years, at least 12 Tesla crashes involving first responders on the scene with flashing lights.
“Tesla has admitted that its Autopilot system will occasionally fail to identify a stopped emergency vehicle,” the suit states.
Occasionally? No, no, no. Not acceptable.