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+--- Thread: Article Trial lawyers are pissed about self-driving cars diminishing profits (/thread-21614.html)
Trial lawyers are pissed about self-driving cars diminishing profits - C C - Oct 19, 2026
Why are trial lawyers afraid of self-driving cars?
https://www.acsh.org/news/2026/10/16/why-are-trial-lawyers-afraid-self-driving-cars-50394
EXCERPTS: Self-driving cars promise fewer accidents, fewer injuries, and potentially thousands of lives saved. That sounds like good news for everyone—except perhaps the personal-injury lawyers whose livelihoods depend on crashes and harm. A proposed federal law governing autonomous vehicles raises an uncomfortable question: When technological progress promises safer travel for pedestrians and drivers but threatens an established business, whose interests come first?
[...] The good news, or maybe not, depending on one’s perspective, is that autonomous vehicles seem to be a godsend in terms of promoting safety and avoiding accidents.
[...] The official policy statement of the American Association of Justice (AAJ), which represents the plaintiffs’ bar, advances arguments that mirror its position in Monsanto v. Durnell, in which the Supreme Court ruled that federal pesticide-labeling law preempts state failure-to-warn lawsuits when EPA regulations are complied with.
Without basis and, in some cases, outright falsely, the AAJ also claims the proposed law:
- eliminates all legal accountability for AV failures and collisions
- strips away victims’ fundamental rights, limiting their right to seek justice, claiming “the bill allows AV companies to push Americans into forced arbitration, a secretive, behind-closed-doors process that stacks the deck against individuals in favor of corporations.”
- eliminates public safety and transparency measures
- fails to establish critical data requirements
- could create dangerous gaps between state and federal law and render thousands of traffic laws unenforceable
- Voices in the public health community disagree, championing the development of safer autonomous vehicles, with the caveat that, now, in the design stages, attention should focus on developing rules for handling the ethical issues triggered by driving.