You were in a wreck involving a vehicle that was driving itself, and now you have no idea who is responsible for what happened to you. Maybe the car was on Autopilot. Maybe it was a robotaxi. Maybe a self-driving vehicle plowed into you while you were in the crosswalk. The driver blames the car. The manufacturer blames the driver. Everyone has a lawyer except you.
The Michigan self-driving car accident lawyers at Fieger Law have built our reputation on holding powerful defendants accountable, and we have been doing it since 1950. This page walks through how self-driving systems fail, who can be held liable when they do, how Michigan law applies to your claim, and what we can do to help. All we do is win. Contact us for a free consultation.
What Counts as a Self-Driving Car Crash
Not every “self-driving” vehicle drives itself the same way. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines six levels of automation, from Level 0 (no automation at all) up through Level 5 (full automation, no human input needed). Most cars on Michigan roads today fall somewhere between Level 1 and Level 3. That means the human driver is still expected to monitor the road, even when the vehicle is steering, braking, or accelerating on its own.
Self-driving car crashes typically involve one of these scenarios:
- Driver-Assist Systems Engaged: A Tesla in Autopilot or Full Self-Driving mode, a vehicle using lane-keeping assist, or a car with adaptive cruise control that fails to react to traffic ahead.
- Robotaxi or Driverless Ride: Services like Waymo or Cruise carry passengers in vehicles with no human driver behind the wheel.
- Pedestrian, Cyclist, or Motorist Struck: Anyone outside the self-driving vehicle hit by it has a claim, the same as in any other car accident.
- Sudden Disengagement: The autonomous system hands control back to a driver who is not ready, sometimes in the seconds leading up to a collision.
Self-driving systems can also fail in ways that look like ordinary driver error. Phantom braking on the highway. A missed obstacle in low light. A misread lane marking on a construction-zoned stretch of I-696. The wreck looks like a person made a mistake, but the cause traces back to the software, the sensors, or both.
If you were hurt in any of these situations, you may be entitled to compensation. Get in touch to talk to an experienced self-driving car accident lawyer.
Who Is Liable After a Self-Driving Car Accident
Fault in a self-driving car case is almost never one party. These claims blend traditional driver negligence with product liability, and sorting out who pays takes a firm that understands both.
The potential defendants in a Michigan self-driving car accident lawsuit include:
- The Human Driver or Owner: If the car had a driver and that driver was inattentive, impaired, or misused the autonomous system, they share fault.
- The Vehicle Manufacturer: Tesla, GM, Ford, Mercedes, and other automakers can be held liable when the car’s design, software, or safety systems caused the wreck or failed to prevent it.
- The Autonomous Driving Software Developer: When a separate company builds the self-driving system installed in the vehicle, that company can be a defendant.
- Sensor and Component Suppliers: LiDAR, radar, and camera manufacturers may be on the hook when their components failed.
- The Fleet Operator: Robotaxi operators like Waymo and Cruise are responsible for the vehicles they put on the road.
Take a Tesla Autopilot wreck as an example. A driver engages Autopilot on I-75 outside Detroit. The system fails to recognize a stopped vehicle ahead. The driver does not retake control in time. In a case like this, both the driver (for trusting a system that requires active monitoring) and Tesla (for marketing a system that creates false confidence) may share fault. Michigan courts apportion that fault among the defendants based on the evidence.
Fieger Law has built our practice by taking on large corporate defendants in catastrophic injury cases. Reach out to talk through who can be held accountable for your wreck.
How Michigan Law Applies to Self-Driving Car Crashes
Michigan’s no-fault auto insurance system changes the math in a self-driving car case. Under no-fault, your own auto insurance pays Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits for your medical bills and lost wages, regardless of who caused the wreck. Pedestrians and bicyclists hit by a self-driving car can also collect PIP, typically through the household auto policy or through Michigan’s assigned claims facility.
PIP coverage alone is rarely enough when a self-driving car causes catastrophic harm. To pursue a third-party tort claim against the at-fault driver, the manufacturer, or the software company, your injuries have to meet Michigan’s threshold injury standard. That means the injury must rise to one of three categories:
- Death: A self-driving car wreck that takes a life qualifies under any standard.
- Serious Impairment of Body Function: A loss that affects your ability to lead your normal life.
- Permanent Serious Disfigurement: Lasting scarring or visible injury.
Michigan also follows modified comparative negligence. If you are 50 percent or less at fault for your own injuries, you can still recover damages, reduced by your percentage of fault. A jury that finds you 51 percent or more at fault bars you from recovery entirely.
The interaction between PIP, threshold injury, and comparative fault in a self-driving car case is more complicated than in an ordinary wreck. Get in touch to find out how Michigan law applies to your case.
Common Injuries in Self-Driving Car Crashes
When a self-driving car causes a crash, the person inside often was not actively braking, steering, or bracing. That changes the physics of the impact. The injuries we see in these cases tend to be severe, especially in high-speed wrecks on I-75, I-96, I-696, and US-10.
Traumatic Brain Injury
A traumatic brain injury (TBI) can range from a concussion to permanent cognitive impairment. Even in a wreck where the airbags deployed correctly, the brain can slam against the inside of the skull. TBIs from self-driving car crashes often go undiagnosed in the first hours because the symptoms, like confusion, headache, and nausea, can be mistaken for ordinary shock.
Spinal Cord Injury
A damaged spinal cord can mean partial or complete paralysis. Even an incomplete spinal cord injury can mean a lifetime of medical care, lost income, and reduced quality of life. Self-driving car wrecks at highway speed are a leading cause of these injuries.
Internal Organ Damage
Blunt-force impact from a high-speed collision can rupture organs, cause internal bleeding, and lead to life-threatening complications hours or days after the wreck. Emergency surgery to repair internal injuries is often required.
Broken Bones and Crush Injuries
Multiple fractures, pelvic injuries, and crush injuries are common in self-driving car wrecks from the rapid change of speed or direction of the car causing occupants to hit the interior surface of the car and from the collapse inward of the vehicle’s frame. Recovery can take months and sometimes never fully comes.
Wrongful Death
Some self-driving car wrecks are not survivable. When a family loses someone to a software failure or a corporate decision to release a system before it was ready, our firm helps surviving family members pursue a wrongful death claim.
If you or a loved one suffered a serious injury in a self-driving car wreck, contact us today. Our experienced attorneys can review your case at no cost.
Evidence That Matters in a Self-Driving Car Lawsuit
Self-driving car cases are won and lost on evidence the average driver does not even know exists. Most of it sits in the vehicle, on the manufacturer’s servers, or in the cloud. All of it can disappear.
The evidence that matters most includes:
- Event Data Recorder (EDR) Output: The car’s “black box” captures speed, braking, steering input, and airbag deployment in the seconds before the crash.
- Software and Firmware Logs: What the autonomous system was doing, what it saw, what decisions it made, and what warnings it issued.
- Sensor and Camera Footage: Most modern self-driving systems record continuous video and LiDAR data from multiple angles around the vehicle.
- Driver Attention-Monitoring Data: Many vehicles track whether the human driver had hands on the wheel and eyes on the road in the moments before disengagement.
- Manufacturer Telemetry: Data the vehicle transmitted back to the automaker about its performance and any error states.
- Police Crash Reports and Witness Statements: The traditional building blocks of a car accident claim, still critical here.
This evidence is held by the manufacturer, the software developer, or the fleet operator, not by you. Without a formal preservation demand from a lawyer, much of it can be overwritten, deleted, or quietly withheld. Independent engineering analysis and accident reconstruction can then translate the raw data into proof that the technology, not the driver, caused the wreck.
Fieger Law has the resources to take on automakers and software companies and demand this evidence. Reach out before that evidence disappears.
What to Do After a Self-Driving Car Accident
The steps you take in the hours and days after a self-driving car wreck shape your case for months to come. Take them in this order:
- Check for injuries and call 911. Your safety comes first. A police report also creates the official record of what happened.
- Get medical attention immediately. Even if you feel fine, internal injuries and concussions can take hours to show. A documented medical record is critical to your claim.
- Document the scene. Photograph the vehicles, the road, any in-car displays showing autonomous mode engaged, warning messages, and the surrounding area.
- Get names and contact information. Other drivers, witnesses, and the responding officer.
- Do not give a recorded statement. The manufacturer’s representative, the fleet operator’s insurer, or the at-fault driver’s insurance company may call within hours. They are not on your side. Politely decline until you have a lawyer.
- Call Fieger Law. The faster we can issue evidence preservation demands, the more of your case we can save.
Pedestrians and bicyclists hit by a self-driving car have their own path to recovery. Michigan PIP can apply through a household auto policy or the assigned claims facility, and a third-party product liability claim against the manufacturer may also be available.
Get in touch before you sign or say anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Is at Fault in a Tesla Autopilot or Self-Driving Car Crash?
Fault depends on what the system did, what the driver did, and whether the vehicle was being used as the manufacturer intended. Most Tesla Autopilot wrecks involve shared fault between the driver, for inadequate monitoring, and Tesla, for the system’s design and marketing. A Michigan jury apportions that fault based on the evidence in the case.
Can I Sue the Car Manufacturer After a Self-Driving Car Accident?
Yes. When an autonomous system or its components caused the wreck or failed to prevent it, the manufacturer can be sued under product liability law. These cases require independent engineering analysis and access to the vehicle’s data, which is why working with experienced attorneys matters.
What if I Were Hit by a Self-Driving Car as a Pedestrian or Cyclist?
You have a claim. Michigan no-fault PIP can apply through a household auto policy or the state-assigned claims facility, and you may also have a third-party product liability case against the vehicle manufacturer or software developer. Pedestrian and cyclist injuries from self-driving cars are often catastrophic, so the value of these claims tends to be high.
How Is a Self-Driving Car Accident Claim Different From a Regular Car Accident Claim?
A self-driving car claim adds product liability law to traditional negligence law, which means more defendants, more evidence, and more technical analysis. The vehicle’s data, software logs, and manufacturer telemetry all come into play in ways they would not in a typical wreck. The legal stakes are higher, and so is the value of the claim.
What Evidence Do I Need for a Self-Driving Car Lawsuit?
Critical evidence includes the vehicle’s event data recorder output, autonomous system software and firmware logs, sensor and camera footage, driver attention-monitoring data, manufacturer telemetry, the police crash report, and medical records documenting your injuries. Much of this data is held by the manufacturer and can be lost if a lawyer does not move quickly to preserve it.
Does Michigan No-Fault Insurance Cover Injuries From a Self-Driving Car Crash?
Yes. Michigan PIP benefits pay for medical bills and lost wages regardless of who or what caused the wreck. PIP applies whether you were a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or cyclist. PIP alone is rarely enough for catastrophic injuries, which is why a third-party claim against the at-fault driver or the manufacturer often matters more.
Talk to a Michigan Self-Driving Car Accident Lawyer.
Fieger Law has practiced injury law in Michigan since 1950. Our firm has built its reputation by taking on the cases other firms walk away from, including catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases against some of the largest defendants in the country. Self-driving car crashes are the next generation of those cases, and we are ready for them.
If you or someone you love was hurt in a car wreck anywhere in Michigan, we can help you understand what happened and what to do next. The consultation is free. You pay nothing unless we get money for you. All we do is win.
Contact us online to schedule your free consultation.
