Can New Technology Prevent Car Accidents?

Ed Normand

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 336

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The new 2009 Volvo XC60 is equipped with a feature called “City Safety.” It is part of a technological advancement made in the car industry and Volvo is on the push to implement it in all their new cars in the future. The “City Safety” is designed to take the control out of the driver’s hands when driving less than 30 kilometers per hour, which is 18.6 miles per hour, and brake on its own to prevent in impending fender bender.

According to ridelust.com, 75% of reported collisions occur below 30km/hour and that in 50% of these cases it was caused by the driver’s failure to brake in time. The “City Safety” technology, if all goes well, will be integrated into all new cars. There is even technology being advanced to incorporate a mechanism that communicates with other vehicles on the road to prevent all types of accidents.

Although this technology seems to be like wishful thinking, it could have a serious impact on auto accident cases and products liability cases. If a driver has a car with the technology and still gets in a fender bender, does this render the product defective? Or can the driver still be negligent for failing to apply the brakes on his own? Either way, this will likely have serious implications in the way future auto negligence cases are handled.