First driverless ticket may become evidence in AV litigation, published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal

In an article published on July 14 in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, Segal McCambridge Shareholder Kenneth P. Williams discusses how California’s new autonomous vehicle enforcement rules may reshape future AV litigation by creating formal records of alleged traffic violations involving driverless vehicles. Williams explains how notices of autonomous vehicle noncompliance may help courts, insurers and regulators determine responsibility when no human driver is behind the wheel.

“California’s first driverless traffic notice may look modest. But in future litigation, that notice could become Exhibit A: the document that fixes the time, place, and nature of the alleged misconduct, then opens the door to the data needed to assign responsibility when no human is behind the wheel,” writes Williams.

The article examines how California’s updated autonomous vehicle regulations, effective July 1, 2026, allow law enforcement to issue notices when autonomous vehicles allegedly violate the Vehicle Code or local traffic ordinances while autonomous technology is engaged. Williams states that these notices may become critical evidence because AV cases often depend on data such as telemetry, sensor records, camera footage, remote assistance logs, geofencing messages and software performance information.

“A notice of autonomous vehicle noncompliance is not the same thing as a conventional traffic citation issued to a human driver. Nor does the statute create an automatic presumption that the vehicle was unsafe, and manufacturers retain the ability to contest the alleged violation,” writes Williams.

Read the article in full; click here (subscriber-based).