What to Do if You’re Involved in an Accident With a Self-Driving Car Like Waymo

Written by Christopher D. Alas, Esq. · Reviewed by Christopher D. Alas, Esq.

Founding & Managing Attorney

✓ Fact Checked

Legally reviewed by Christopher D. Alas, Esq.

Founding & Managing Attorney

✓ Fact Checked

Getting into an accident is stressful enough when there is another driver to talk to, exchange information with, and hold accountable. When the vehicle involved has no driver at all, that stress multiplies. Self-driving cars from companies like Waymo are becoming more common on Texas roads, and if one is involved in a crash with you, figuring out what happened and who pays for it works differently than a standard car accident claim.

We built our practice around helping people make sense of situations exactly like this. As your case manager, legal assistant, and property damage specialist, we gather evidence and communicate with insurance companies on your behalf; we walk you through what steps to take right after a crash with an autonomous vehicle, what makes these claims different, and what you can realistically expect as your case moves forward.

What Makes a Self-Driving Car Accident Different

A traditional car accident claim usually starts with a simple question: which driver was negligent. A crash involving a self-driving vehicle removes that starting point, since there is no person behind the wheel making moment-to-moment decisions. Texas law still requires an automated driving system to be treated as the vehicle’s operator for traffic purposes, but that label does not automatically decide who pays when something goes wrong.

Instead, these cases often involve several potential parties at once. The company operating the fleet may be responsible if the vehicle was poorly maintained or the technology was known to have problems. The manufacturer of the vehicle or its sensors may be responsible if a hardware defect played a role. The developer of the software may be responsible if a coding error caused the car to misread a stop sign or fail to detect a pedestrian. Because more than one party can share fault, ask directly whether the vehicle was in fully autonomous mode or being monitored by a remote or safety operator at the time of the crash, since that answer often points toward which party’s records matter most.

Steps to Take Immediately After the Crash

What you do in the minutes and hours after a crash with a self-driving vehicle can shape your entire claim, since the evidence tied to these cars can disappear faster than the evidence in a standard crash:

• Call 911 and get medical attention, even if you feel fine, since some injuries do not show symptoms right away
• Note the company operating the vehicle, along with any visible identifiers on the car itself
• If you were a passenger, take screenshots of the ride details, including trip status, pickup and drop-off points, and timestamps
• Ask if the vehicle had a safety driver or remote operator involved at the time of the crash
• Avoid discussing fault with anyone at the scene, including a company representative who may arrive to assess the vehicle

Once you have taken these steps, reaching out to a lawyer quickly matters more than it might with a typical crash, since companies operating these vehicles can move fast to retrieve or overwrite onboard data.

Why Evidence Preservation Matters So Much Here

Self-driving vehicles generate an enormous amount of data every time they operate, including sensor logs, camera footage, and software diagnostics. That data is often the strongest evidence in the entire case, since it can show exactly what the vehicle detected, how it responded, and whether it followed its own programming correctly.

The problem is that this data does not always stick around. Vehicles may be pulled from service, repaired, or have their systems updated within days of a crash, and once that happens, the details that would have explained what went wrong can be gone for good. Sending a preservation letter to the company as soon as possible puts them on notice that this evidence cannot be destroyed, and you can support that effort on your own by writing down the exact time, location, and direction of travel while the details are still fresh, since your own notes can later confirm or challenge what the company’s data shows.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requires companies operating automated vehicles to report certain crashes, which means there is often a paper trail beyond what the vehicle itself recorded. Pulling that reporting history can add another layer of proof to a claim, particularly when a company disputes what its own vehicle did.

How Insurance Companies Approach These Claims

Insurance companies handling a self-driving car claim often try to draw the case out longer than a standard one, since more parties usually means more back and forth about who is financially responsible. Some insurers may argue that a hardware or software defect makes the claim a product liability matter rather than a straightforward negligence case, which shifts the type of proof needed and can extend the timeline.

Texas follows a modified comparative fault rule, meaning you can still recover compensation as long as you are found less than 51 percent responsible for the crash. This matters in self-driving accident claims because a company may try to argue that a pedestrian, cyclist, or other driver contributed to the crash in order to reduce its own share of the payout. A few habits protect you against that tactic. Avoid giving a recorded statement to the company’s insurer before speaking with someone who can review your case, hold off on accepting an early settlement offer until you know the full extent of your injuries, and keep your own copies of medical bills, repair estimates, and any written communication rather than relying on the company to track those records for you. Similar disputes can come up in rideshare accident claims, where more than one company may try to point at the other.

What You Can Realistically Expect

These cases tend to move slower than a standard car accident claim, mainly because identifying every responsible party takes time, and because companies operating self-driving vehicles often have more resources to contest a claim. That does not mean you have less of a case. It means the investigation looks different, and having someone dig through crash reports, sensor data, and company maintenance records on your behalf matters even more.

If you were hurt in an accident where a road hazard or a defect played a role, the same investigative approach applies, since proving what caused the malfunction is often the difference between a denied claim and a fair settlement. We handle that investigation so you can focus on recovering.

Talk to Redemption Law About Your Self-Driving Car Accident

At Redemption Law, our attorney, case manager, legal assistant, and property damage specialist work as a team on every case, which means someone is always looking into the details of your claim as they develop. We know how confusing it can feel to sort out fault when there was no driver at all, and we walk our clients through what the evidence shows and what their options look like at each stage.

If you were injured in a crash involving a self-driving vehicle, getting the right information preserved early can make a real difference in your claim. Reach out to our team through our contact form so we can start looking into what happened and help you understand what comes next.

Legally reviewed by

Christopher D. Alas, Esq.

Founding & Managing Attorney, Redemption Law, PLLC

Christopher D. Alas is the founder and managing attorney of Redemption Law, a personal injury firm licensed in Texas and Florida. He oversees the firm’s litigation strategy and draws on a background in tax law to help clients understand the financial and legal implications of their injury claims. Read full bio

Legally reviewed by

Christopher D. Alas, Esq.

Founding & Managing Attorney, Redemption Law, PLLC

Christopher D. Alas is the founder and managing attorney of Redemption Law, a personal injury firm licensed in Texas and Florida. He oversees the firm’s litigation strategy and draws on a background in tax law to help clients understand the financial and legal implications of their injury claims. Read full bio