(02-09-2026, 12:30 AM)dave Wrote: I thought I would share my story about a friend of mine who was involved in a similar accident about 20 years ago on his Harley. He was going very slowly through a shopping center parking lot when a car pulled out in front of him. He slammed on the brakes, lost control, and had a gentle tip over. He never came into contact with the car. The damage was minor, just scratches to his bags and fairing. The car owner stopped, and when they talked, the car owner insisted that he was not liable because "no contact was made". My friend took the guy to court to pay for the damages, but the judge ruled against him. I don't remember exactly how the judge reached his conclusion, but my friend was pretty upset. Maybe it would have been different if he had run into the car?
Really tough to prove fault in parking lot accidents generally, and even more so when the two vehicles didn't touch. It also depends upon the liability laws in the particular state. Finally, if the judge was a BMW rider, then he was probably thinking that your friend shouldn't have been riding the Harley in the first place.
I'm late to this thread.
The rebuild looks great.
I'm a little curious why the self-driving car aspect of this is considered important to the circumstances of the accident. Are you contending that the Tesla did not "see" you? If so, is it any more probable that the driver would have? (I would argue that it's not). Or was it just that the self-parking mode makes abrupt movements (try it in a Ram 1500 pick up...terrifying) that you had not predicted? I completely agree with your message to be extra cautious in parking lots, but I'd rather be in a parking lot filled with self-parking vehicles than one filled with 80 year-old drivers parking themselves.