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Judging by this report, it may take a little longer before the anxiously awaited self-driving cars hit the road. While automakers should be responsible for the crash of any of the self-driving cars, automakers believe that a case where the car is not properly maintained should be an exception. In such case, they believe that the liability should be borne by the owner who refused to maintain the car.

Their underlying argument is that the poor maintenance should likely be the cause of such crash. If their proposal goes through, they (automakers) will be absolved of product liability for faults like owner’s failure to meet manufacturer’s oil change recommendations, improperly inflated tires, dirty vehicle sensors among others. While it is believed that owners should also bear some of the liability, it should not be that of car crash whether the car is poorly maintained or not.

Until this seeming quagmire is resolved, it is not likely that self-driving cars will hit the road anytime soon. However, auto-manufacturers are in constant communication with some prospective buyers to work out certain agreements. As much as people are waiting anxiously for these cars, it can be a little scary to see a semi-truck moving on the highway with nobody controlling it.

Regulators ad Federal lawmakers, especially those in Florida have given automakers enough grounds and time to test their products properly before launching them so that the annual 30,000 auto-accident related deaths in the US will be drastically reduced.

According to a Florida car accident lawyer, when auto makers are held liable for the design of their products, they will take the time to test their cars properly before launching them. This is because a lot of products manufacturers do not test their products enough before releasing them to the public. Almost every Florida car accident lawyer believes that car manufacturers are guilty of this. The number of cars that have been recalled between 2011 and 2016 underscores this fact.

There are a few cases of product liability lawsuits for car accidents to back this opinion up. Over 11 million vehicles were recalled in 2011 while a little over 53 million were also recalled in 2016. So, if this car crash liability is completely borne by automakers, they will take the time to test each of their vehicles properly before releasing them to the public.

What makes it difficult for automakers to accept the liability is that they don’t bear such liability even in the conventional human-driven cars. It is the drivers that bear most of the liability. Having the buck of liability shift completely from the owners to them is a real hard pill to swallow.

So, if owners will also bear some liability, what part of liability should they bear? At least there should be something that will drive them to maintain their vehicles as recommended by the manufacturers. The general public can only wait to see how it goes.