Michelle Kuykendal

Michelle Kuykendal, Ph.D., P.E., CFEI, CVFI, is a principal engineer in Exponent's Computer, Data, and Security Science practice with over 12 years of experience in robotics, ADAS, automotive electronics, and fire investigations. She specializes in performing product liability, functional safety, and failure analysis evaluations of automated driving and physical AI systems for OEMs, insurers, and law firms.

ADAS & Automated Vehicles

Dr. Kuykendal advises clients on the performance, safety, and limitations of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) across all levels of vehicle automation, from Level 1 driver support features through Level 4 and Level 5 automated operation. Her evaluations address automatic emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning (FCW), adaptive cruise control (ACC), lane-keeping assist, and electronically controlled throttle actuation to analyze how these systems behave under real-world environmental variability, edge-case scenarios, and adversarial conditions.

Dr. Kuykendal applies both design-level analysis and structured performance testing — including non-impact and simulated-failure testing protocols — to assess whether a system performed as designed, and as a reasonable consumer would expect. Her work in this domain supports product liability litigation, class action matters, and functional safety assessments including under ISO 26262 and ISO 21448, known as Safety of the Intended Functionality (SOTIF). She has served as an expert witness in automotive product liability and class action proceedings involving ADAS and automated vehicle technology.

Robotics & Physical AI

As physical AI and automated machines move from controlled environments into public and commercial spaces, Dr. Kuykendal helps manufacturers, insurers, and legal teams answer the engineering questions surrounding their reliability, sensor integration, and failure behavior in both product development and litigation contexts. She consults on the safety, performance, and failure modes of robotic systems, including humanoid robots, delivery robots, and warehouse automation platforms, evaluating system architectures, control logic, and real-world performance against design intent and applicable safety standards. Her background in closed-loop control systems and real-time sensor feedback — developed through doctoral research in neural stimulation and extended through years of applied consulting — provides a rigorous technical foundation for these assessments.

Robotics & Automated Vehicle Sensor Performance

Dr. Kuykendal evaluates the performance and limitations of the sensor suites that underpin robotics, ADAS, and automated vehicles, including cameras, radar, lidar, and ultrasonic sensors, as well as the sensor fusion algorithms that integrate their outputs into a unified environmental model. She has extensive experience investigating the myriad ways sensor functionality can be limited and sensor data streams can degrade, fail, and produce unreliable outputs under conditions ranging from adverse weather and lighting to physical contamination and electromagnetic interference. Her consulting work addresses how these degradation mechanisms affect system-level behavior and whether a system's response to sensor uncertainty was appropriate. This work supports both defense and plaintiffs in product liability matters, as well as pre-litigation technical assessments for manufacturers seeking to understand their exposure.

Automotive Electronics, In-Vehicle Networks & Functional Safety

Dr. Kuykendal provides consulting on automotive electrical and electronic (E/E) architecture, including embedded control systems, electronic control units (ECUs), and in-vehicle communication networks such as CAN, LIN, FlexRay, and MOST. She evaluates computer and control modules, and their behavior in the context of both normal operation and failure scenarios. Her Functional Safety Practitioner certification (Automotive ISO 26262) enables her to assess whether a system's safety lifecycle — from hazard analysis and risk assessment through design, verification, and validation — was conducted appropriately. This work is particularly relevant to class action litigation and product liability matters involving alleged defects in automotive electronics, where the question is not only whether a system failed but whether its design adequately anticipated and mitigated the risk of failure.

Fire Investigation & Root Cause

As a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) and Certified Vehicle Fire Investigator (CVFI), Dr. Kuykendal conducts failure analysis and root-cause investigations for vehicle fires, consumer product fires, and fires involving electrical and electronic systems. She applies systematic root-cause analysis methodologies — consistent with NFPA 921 and NFPA 1033 — to determine the ignition source, first fuel ignited, and contributing factors in fire events. Her technical background in electrical systems, battery technology, and automotive electronics allows her to evaluate fire hypotheses that involve lithium-ion battery thermal runaway (battery fire), electrical arcing, resistive faults, and component overheating with a level of depth that generalist fire investigators cannot match. She serves clients including legal counsel, manufacturers, and insurers in both subrogation and product liability contexts.