Chicago, Illinois – As Waymo’s autonomous vehicles begin mapping and testing routes on Chicago streets and state lawmakers debate a framework for driverless technology, Briskman Briskman & Greenberg Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers is examining how the shift could reshape liability and consumer protections in Illinois.
The firm’s analysis comes as Representative Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, advances the Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Project Act in Springfield. The proposal would allow commercial automated vehicles to operate in Illinois counties with more than 1 million residents, including Sangamon, Madison, St. Clair, and Monroe. For now, autonomous vehicles like Waymo must have a human driver behind the wheel, and the measure remains in the House Rules Committee.
Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, has begun testing its vehicles with safety drivers in downtown Chicago but has not announced a timeline for fully driverless service. The company is already under federal scrutiny. Investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have been opened into reports that Waymo vehicles illegally passed stopped school buses, blocked emergency vehicles and struck a child near an elementary school. Waymo, citing its own safety data, has said its vehicles are involved in far fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers.
Attorneys at Briskman Briskman & Greenberg say that beyond the technology itself, the central question for Illinois residents is what happens in the aftermath of a crash involving an automated vehicle.
“When control of a car shifts from a human being to a software system, our traditional understanding of fault and responsibility is tested,” the Waymo accident attorneys said in a recent analysis of the pending legislation. “Victims will need clear answers about whether liability rests with the vehicle owner, the manufacturer, the software developer, or some combination of all three.”
The firm notes that Illinois’ current minimum auto insurance requirements were written for privately owned vehicles operated by human drivers, not for fleets of robotaxis backed by large corporations like Alphabet.
“For high-speed, high-traffic environments like Chicago, minimum coverage is unlikely to be adequate when serious injuries occur,” attorney Paul Greenberg said. “Any autonomous vehicle statute should require significantly higher liability limits and unambiguous financial responsibility from the corporate entities putting these vehicles on the road.”
Access to evidence is another point of focus. Automated vehicles generate extensive data from cameras, lidar, radar, and onboard computers. Briskman Briskman & Greenberg cautions that injured people cannot fairly pursue claims if critical crash data is controlled solely by the company operating the fleet.
“The law will need to address who owns the data and how long it must be preserved,” the firm said. “Without guaranteed access to event logs and sensor data, investigating what went wrong in a collision will be far more difficult for ordinary motorists, pedestrians and motorcyclists.”
Weather and infrastructure pose additional challenges. Waymo notes that it has been tested in cities with snow and freezing temperatures, including Detroit, New York, and Buffalo. Yet, Illinois advocates have pointed to icy roads, low visibility, and faded lane markings, especially downstate, as serious tests for camera- and sensor-based systems.
“In dense urban traffic, with cyclists, motorcyclists, and pedestrians all sharing narrow corridors, the margin for error is small,” Paul stated. “Chicago and Illinois cannot assume that performance in a handful of out-of-state test markets will automatically translate to local conditions.”
Briskman Briskman & Greenberg is closely following the negotiations in Springfield and urges lawmakers to weigh testimony from technologists, safety advocates, labor organizations and injury attorneys before authorizing widespread deployment.
The attorneys at Briskman Briskman & Greenberg Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers have successfully represented individuals and families who have been injured or lost loved ones as a result of someone’s carelessness or a workplace accident. We have achieved success in thousands of cases, recovering millions of dollars in damages for our clients in a wide variety of cases, including personal injury, car accidents, wrongful death, medical malpractice, pharmacy errors, dog bite injuries, and work injuries.
Briskman Briskman & Greenberg Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers
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Press Contact : Paul Greenberg
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