Given the litigation-happy activities of plaintiff's attorneys when it comes to truck-involved crash lawsuits, a panel convened at the Truckload 2022 conference of the Truckload Carriers Association last week in Las Vegas provided insight on just who would be the principal litigation target in crashes involving possible future rigs piloted in large part by automated systems.
In the view of Wiley Deck, former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration chief and now vice president of government affairs with autonomous-systems developer Plus.ai, post-crash litigators would target not only trucking companies, but also companies like his own, and truck manufacturers. "Everybody is liable," Deck put it bluntly in response to a question from the moderator of the discussion, Dave Williams of Knight-Swift.
"That's the easiest answer, because that’s who the trial attorney will go after," Deck elaborated, predicting an "exponential increase of exposure in liability lawsuits" for truck manufacturers, given they just don't experience a high level now compared to motor carriers large and small considered together.
His own company and others like them, too, Deck wagered, would be a target. "The OEM chose us" as a technology partner "and sold that vehicle" to the motor carrier. Given on-board vehicle systems likely to be responsible for piloting autonomous rigs of an uncertain future, OE "exposure will be exponentially greater than it is now. ... If I were an OEM, I would have reservations."
[Related: How a plaintiffs' attorney shop works -- and how to play defense work it]
Deck was joined on the panel by representatives from the Waymo company, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, as well as tech developer Aurora. "Controlling where those [future autonomous] vehicles are allowed to be operating" could develop into a strategy to mitigate liability risk, Deck said in reference to Texas' tort reform legislation, expected to limit the size of so-called "nuclear verdicts."
For his part, though, Charlie Jatt, Waymo's trucking commercialization head, disagreed with the notion that truck-maker liability exposure increases were inevitable. "We stand behind our technology, full stop," he said. "Our lane is pretty clear. We are driving the vehicle" as a tech provider. "To any extent that there's an incident from driving the vehicle, we stand behind that."
