Attorney Amy Witherite Issues Warning to Texas Motorists About Autonomous Vehicle Safety Following CrowdStrike Outage
29 Julio 2024 - 11:15AM
Business Wire
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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