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Florida Constitution Revision Commission

PUB 700566: Autonomous Car Liability by Todd Misamore

NEW ARTICLE

Title: PROTECTION OF THE PUBLIC FROM THE DANGERS OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

In The State of Florida, any person who is involved in a collision with a vehicle which is fully autonomous, whether that vehicle is for private use or commercial use, including trucks, semi-trucks, or any commercial truck, and the fault of that collision was caused by the fully autonomous vehicle, shall have the right to pursue civil litigation from, the manufacturer of the fully autonomous vehicle, the designer of the fully autonomous vehicle, any company associated with marketing the fully autonomous vehicle, and the operating officers of any company connected to that fully autonomous vehicles design construction and sale. In addition to any civil awards, all attorney's fees, costs or other expenses shall be awarded to the person who was struck by the fully autonomous vehicle. If more than one fully autonomous vehicle is involved in the collision, all fully autonomous vehicles may be found to be at fault and civil suits may be pursued by all parties. For the purposes of this proposal, a fully autonomous vehicle shall be defined as a vehicle which does not require any human being to operate the steering, braking or acceleration of the vehicle, HOWEVER, this shall not include autonomous safety features that operate momentarily or only as needed such as front, rear or blindspot collision avoidance systems, or any traditional cruise control feature, unless those features can be shown to be defective or have malfunctioned.