Soon, your rush to a Pennsylvania hospital might be driverless. Possible? Not just possible, but likely, according to a Pittsburgh expert in emergency medicine.
As Uber tests self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, this question comes up: If self-driving cars, what about self-driving ambulances?
Dr. Paul Porter, Allegheny Health Network Emergency Medicine Physician, thinks self-driving ambulances are likely to happen sooner than later.
“I think it’s a question of not if, but when,” said Dr. Porter.
In fact, Dr. Porter thinks self-driving ambulances in Pennsylvania will be a plus for patient care. If an ambulance is self-driving, both paramedics will be free to help a patient rather than having one of them behind the wheel. Another benefit: a self-driving ambulance’s ability to pick the safest, quickest route.
Though self-driving ambulances could potentially help Pennsylvania patients, they could also lead to patient injuries. Last September, Google’s self-driving car crashed into a van while operating in its autonomous mode. And before that, a Google-branded self-driving car hit a public transit bus while attempting to navigate around a sandbag.
These crashes raise questions well beyond the safety of self-driving vehicles. There are also liability and negligence questions regarding who is to blame. For example, if a self-driving ambulance crashes, who is at fault?
There are other questions, too—ones that go beyond accidental collisions and crashes. More troubling is the potential for software hacks. What happens if a self-driving ambulance is hacked and control is taken over by a hacker?
These liability and negligence questions have yet to be answered. However, late last year, the Department of Transportation (DOT) introduced several guidelines governing self-driving cars. These new guidelines, which stop short of official regulations, include:
To learn more about our ability to protect the value of your medical malpractice lawsuit, contact a medical malpractice lawyer at Richards & Richards today.
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