Auto designers have long offered gimmicks to make drivers feel they’re behind the wheel of something special.
Recent decades have seen automakers offer features like push-button gear selectors and computerized voices gently reminding drivers their car doors are ajar. And many newer features – like three-point seatbelts and anti-lock brakes – greatly enhance passenger and driver safety.
More recently, vehicle makers began adding sensors to warn drivers about vehicles in their blind spots and help cars stay in their travel lanes. Now, makers of electric vehicles (EVs) are pushing design limits to eliminate conventional gauge clusters by moving formerly mechanical operations to onboard touch screens.
“Technologies like adaptive cruise control, camera-based systems, RADAR and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) are innovations creating generational shifts in how motor vehicles are operated,” says Adam Mitchell, CEO of Mitch Insurance. “The same is true for drive-by-wire and brake by-wire-technologies which replace physical connections between drivers and a vehicle’s control surfaces in favour of electronic signals.”
Potential risk of all-electronic controls was illustrated last October when an accident along Toronto’s lakeshore involving an EV that lost control, crashed and caught fire raised concerns among insurance and legal experts.
Related: Who’s on the hook if passengers can’t escape a burning EV?
News reports indicated a surviving passenger couldn’t free herself from the burning wreck because the impact knocked out the vehicle’s electrical systems. The rear-seat doors where the passenger was trapped were equipped with manual door releases but she was unfamiliar with the vehicle and could not locate them.
Long-term risks
Mechanical and electrical issues are an inherent risk of driving, notes Matthew Owen, a lawyer at Zarek Taylor Grossman Hanrahan. Leaking brake lines can lead to accidents and snapped axles can cause cars to flip, he adds.
Mitchell agrees, noting airbags, anti-lock braking systems or reverse cameras can malfunction at any time.
“The act of driving itself is dangerous. There’s lots of ways a vehicle can fail, and it seems that electric vehicles have unique ways they can fail [that] haven’t been seen before,” Owen tells CU. “And it’s something that is going to need to be addressed when it comes to evaluating how safe these vehicles are and how to make them safer going forward.”
However, he adds regulators’ mandates admonish them to avoid stifling development of new technologies by applying burdensome regulations. “And I don’t know that they’re expected to anticipate every new risk that a novel technology might create,” he says.
In addition to the Toronto lakeshore accident, Owen points out there have been similar crashes involving EV vehicle fires that led to deaths in the U.S. and Asia. “Now that it’s a problem that ought to be on [manufacturers’] radar, you would think that this is something that they would be looking to address in terms of the safety ratings and whether these vehicles are safe for our roads going forward.”
Related: Lithium-ion batteries leading to deadly fires – and lawsuits
Faced with rapidly evolving motor vehicle technology, Transport Canada tells CU in a statement that it “continues to actively work with the international community to conduct research and testing of features available in vehicles on the market today to evaluate potential safety benefits and support informed decision-making on potential future safety policies related to motor vehicles.”
Adoption of EVs has been gradual over the past decade, so it’s taken several years for accident statistics to lead to concerns. If lawsuits follow accidents, Owen says, that may lead manufacturers to voluntarily make changes to dampen the threat of lawsuits.
“They’ll do it because not changing is costing them too much money. There’s a potential for product liability [suits because] the vehicle is designed in a way that actively hinders [things like] egress by people unfamiliar with the vehicle.”
Auto coverage
In terms of how legal actions or insurance claims might unfold, Mitchell says regardless of vehicle features or design, drivers are directly compensated by their insurance companies.
“They’re going to call [their insurance] company directly, or phone the broker [to] get the claim started,” he says. “They’re going to be able to get all the benefits that are inside their policy.
“If you wanted to sue for damages over and above what’s covered on your policy, if you were severely injured or [experienced] psychological trauma, in [that] case you’re getting a lawyer and then trying to extract the max [from the] insurance policy [of] whoever did you wrong.”
A passenger in a car, meanwhile, “would be able to make a claim to [their] insurance policy, but the policy of the car [they were riding] in would have some coverage for them. It depends on how deep in the well that claimant and their lawyer are trying to go.”
And, says Owen, “The negligence of the person who caused the accident itself would be [the first thing a suit would address].
“But if you could prove that faulty design or manufacture of the vehicle, in and of itself, caused or contributed to your damages,” he adds, “then you could potentially bring a claim against the designer and the manufacturer or even distributor of that faulty product.”
Feature image by iStock/metamorworks
