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Over the course of my 30+ years as a personal injury lawyer, I have witnessed a sobering pattern: every new technology creates new ways for people to get injured.
When I started seeing clients, before smart phones existed, pedestrians might get hurt because they tripped or slipped, or were struck, but they weren't walking out into traffic while glued to their phone and unaware of their surroundings. Drivers still might run a red light, but it wasn't because they were texting.
Another striking example occurred with the release of Pokémon Go in 2016, which took use of the cell phone to another level. The augmented reality game used a phone's GPS and camera to find and "catch" virtual Pokémon characters. It quickly became a global phenomenon and just as quickly led to a string of accidents and injuries. Staring at their phones while moving about outside, players walked into traffic, fell, or collided with objects. There were also reports of car crashes linked to people who tried to play while driving.
E-BIKE AND E-SCOOTER CRASHES
In the early days of my career, folks might get hurt while riding a bicycle or motorcycle, but I never encountered e-bike or e-scooter crashes — until e-bikes and e-scooters were created. Now they regularly lead to serious injuries.
I did not meet him as my own client, but many might recall the tragic fate of Jimi Heselden, the British entrepreneur who owned the company that produced the Segway, the self-balancing stand-up scooter that senses a rider's mass and body-shifts to direct its movement. Heselden died after accidentally riding an all-terrain Segway off a cliff near his home in West Yorkshire.
More recently, we've seen one report after another of collisions — many of them horrific — involving self-driving vehicles, often due to a combination of computer/sensor error and a complete abdication of responsible driver oversight.
FLYING CARS
So, I guess the recent reports of two flying cars colliding with one another at an airshow should be no surprise to anyone. When Xpeng AeroHT, Asia's largest flying car company, showcased its flagship technology to the world, it garnered way more attention than it could ever hope to achieve; just not the kind of attention it wanted. Fortunately, as reported, no one was hurt.
It remains a cautionary tale, and while I don't expect to see too many flying cars in my neighbourhood anytime soon, it does portend the future!
From augmented reality games to new forms of micromobility, to autonomous vehicles, and now even flying cars, the pattern is the same. New technology creates changes to the legal landscape itself. Distracted driving has become its own category of negligence. Product liability questions now surround self-driving vehicles. Risks associated with e-scooters and e-bikes raise liability issues for the operators of rental fleets.
Every innovation brings both promise and peril. As these technologies take control of our streets, sidewalks, and skies, the law must evolve to ensure accountability and protection.
What hasn't changed is the role of lawyers, families, and communities in seeking justice when the human cost of innovation is overlooked.
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