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(logo whooshing)

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(soft music)

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- [Narrator] As connected
and automated vehicles

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become more prevalent on Texas roads,

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legal questions have arisen
surrounding this new technology.

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Who will be liable when a
fully autonomous vehicle

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is involved in an incident?

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What role will TxDOT and
other state DOTs have?

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The Texas Department of Transportation

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and researchers with the Texas
A&M Transportation Institute

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have examined potential scenarios
involving C/AV technology

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to provide answers.

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- We wanted to look at, what
was the liability to TxDOT

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if we use this and we put
them on the road ourselves,

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if we put our staff into these vehicles,

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and also then, what was
the liability to TxDOT

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as far as the communication aspect

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of vehicles using connected technology

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with our road features?

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- We haven't really tried
any of these situations.

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Incidents have occurred,
but nothing's gone to trial,

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so no one has a legal precedent
for how to deal with it.

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All of the questions that everyone

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is asking these days are pretty vague,

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so what TxDOT did that was
really valuable and unique

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was to actually develop
hypothetical questions

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that are very, very fact-specific.

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We're not gonna get
any further speculating

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in very vague generalities
until somebody really starts

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to ask questions about
very specific facts,

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and that's what we did.

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- We were in hopes to kind
of centralize all of this

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into one area so people
could just come to this

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and look to see what
everyone else was doing.

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So we hope to continue to put
information into our database

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that we've created through
this research project

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and keep it as a live document.

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- So one of the main
findings from this project

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is that governmental entities like TxDOT

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are pretty well protected
from tort liability.

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The Texas Tort Claims Act
provides a large degree

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of sovereign immunity for
governmental entities.

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We have caps on damages,

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which discourage plaintiffs
from bringing suits,

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and we have shared liability,

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which can lower the liability
for a governmental entity.

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So all in all, we have
really solid protections

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here in Texas for governmental entities

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against tort liabilities.

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TxDOT now has a really comprehensive,

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solid foundation collection inventory

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of statutes, case law,
practices, operations,

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all in one place that help them
to move forward and prepare

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and mitigate for any potential
liability they may face

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as a result of automated
vehicles on the roadway.

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- [Narrator] For more information

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and to find the publications
for this project,

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please visit the TxDOT Research Library

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at the link shown below.