Judge Throws Out Lawsuit That Blamed Apple For Distracted Driving

Apple has been hit with numerous lawsuits arguing the tech company has failed to implement technology on its devices that would curb distracted drivers. On Friday, one of the cases was thrown out by a California judge, Law360 reported.

The recent case was brought by Craig Riggs, a Minnesota man whose 20-year-old son died in 2013 after he was hit by a teen driver who was texting with an iPhone. The driver was charged with a misdemeanor. Riggs sought to hold Apple accountable for failing to implement a lock out system on iPhones to block out distracted drivers.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Maureen A. Folan threw out the case, making her decision partly based on a previous 2016 lawsuit, Meador vs Apple, which also decided the company should not be held liable.

“The chain of causation alleged by the plaintiffs in this case is far too attenuated for a reasonable person to conclude that Apple’s conduct is or was a substantial factor in causing plaintiff’s harm,” said Folan.

Another lawsuit that blamed Apple over distracted driving was filed last December by a couple in Texas after they suffered a car accident because of a driver who was on FaceTime. The couple, James and Bethany Modisette, brought their case forward after their 5-year-old daughter was killed in the incident. The couple and their other daughter were also injured.

The lawsuit claims the company failed "to warn users that the product was likely to be dangerous when used or misused" or to instruct on its safe usage. It also cited a previous Apple patent and said the company failed to manufacture its iPhone 6 Plus with “safer, alternative ‘lock-out’ technology.”

“Despite the fact that Apple Inc. has had the technology since at least 2008 to implement a ‘lock-out mechanism without requiring any modifications or additions to a vehicle by using a motion analyzer, a scenery analyzer and a lock-out mechanism,’ Apple Inc. has never implemented its technology on any of its iPhones,” the lawsuit said.

The case was also thrown out by a judge in May.

A class-action lawsuit was filed against Apple in Los Angeles County Superior Court by MLG Automotive Law earlier this year. The lawsuit seeks to force Apple to create a feature that would lock out users from their devices when driving to prevent them from texting or using their iPhones while on the road.

Do Not Disturb While Driving

Although Apple did not mention the lawsuits, the company announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June that it will roll out the Do Not Disturb While Driving feature with iOS 11 this fall. The feature for iPhones and iPads will automatically sense when a user is driving, by using speed detection, and turn off notifications. Do Not Disturb While Driving will also auto-reply when people send a user messages, saying he or she is on the road and will answer later.

“We think this is going to be a real important step for safety in the car,” Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, said at WWDC.