San Diego Personal Injury Attorney Blog

Robotics Expert Says Tesla Autopilot Will Kill Cyclists

Some describe the rise of self-driving cars as the next technological revolution, an invention that will completely change the way that our society functions. Tesla, Uber and Waymo are leading the charge toward fully autonomous vehicles, while dozens of other car companies are incorporating self-driving features, such as automatic parking and collision avoidance, into their vehicles. But a Stanford University robotics researcher is speaking out against self-driving cars, claiming that they pose a potentially fatal risk to cyclists. Heather Knight, a human-robot interface expert with a PhD from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, recently published an essay about Tesla’s autonomous vehicles, titled “Tesla Autopilot Review: Bikers Will Die.” Ominous, no? The Review Knight and a colleague from Stanford took a spin in a Tesla vehicle around the streets and highways of southern California. She described the experience as “frightening,” despite working well in most situations. One severe flaw,…
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California Bicyclist Killed by DUI Driver

A 59-year-old man in Oceanside was recently killed in a bicycle accident. The man was riding his bike in the late afternoon when a 19-year-old woman driving a 2002 Ford Explorer veered off to the right of the road, striking the cyclist. He died at the scene. Police arrested the woman on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs. She could face charges including felony driving under the influence of drugs and felony vehicular manslaughter. Fatal Bicycle Accident Statistics The number of cyclists killed in collisions in California has remained consistent over the course of the last few years: 164 in 2013, 142 in 2014, 153 in 2015 and 143 in 2016. In the United States, in 2015, more than two people died in bicycle accidents every day of the year. And in 35 percent of those accidents, alcohol was involved. With more than 800 deaths every year in…
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What If a Drone Crashes into Me While Cycling?

Drones are making more and more appearances at sporting events. The cameras mounted to them provide great footage from an angle normally inaccessible or impractical to film from, but they also pose a significant risk to both participants and viewers of sporting events. Last year, a drone operated by a TV broadcast crew came crashing down a few feet away from a professional skier in Italy. And this year, we’ve seen a near-direct hit. A pro cyclist racing in Sacramento’s Golden State Race series was riding alongside dozens of other cyclists when a drone lost control and dive-bombed into the group of riders. One of the cyclists ran straight into the drone, smashing it to pieces, and it seemed like a crisis was averted. However, moments later, a piece of the drone that caught in the cyclist’s front bike tire caused the tire to seize, sending the cyclist over his…
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