Audi to own up to self-driving car accidents – report

Audi has stolen a march in the race of automomous vehicle developments, with the first Level 3 autonomous car in the new A8 flagship sedan. Naturally there are concerns with what happens in the event of accidents involving autonomous cars, and here Audi has stepped forward to claim full responsibility should any of its self-driving cars get involved in such incidents, according to Car Advice.

“When the function is operated as intended, if the customer turns the traffic jam pilot on and uses it as intended, and the car was in control at the time of the accident, the driver goes to his insurance company and the insurance company will compensate the victims of the accident and in the aftermath they come to us and we have to pay them,” said Thorsten Leonhardt, chief of pre-development of automated driving at Audi.

The German automaker isn’t the first to put its hands up for any potential clash involving automated vehicles, though. Volvo has also said that it will “accept full liability whenever one of its cars are in autonomous mode,” in reference to legislation in the United States.

Level 3 autonomous driving allows the vehicle’s driver to fully hand over operational control to the vehicle, enabling the driver to do things other than pay attention to the road. At this level, the vehicle is able to take control of random situations, and the driver only becomes responsible once the system alerts him or her to take over. Audi’s traffic jam pilot system is operational at speeds of up to 60 km/h.

GALLERY: 2018 Audi A8

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