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Self-Driving Cars To Transform Insurance and Other Industries
MarkWhittington writes: The advent of commercially available self-driving cars is about five years away, but already some are thinking about how they will disrupt the economy and how society operates in general. One industry likely to suffer is that of auto insurance. Since the vast majority of auto accidents are caused by human error, having more autonomous vehicles on the road will almost assuredly result in fewer overall accidents. Further, once we've transitioned to a society that mostly gets around using self-driving vehicles, most accidents will be the result of hardware and software malfunctions. Insurance for self-driving cars would more resemble product liability coverage than the sort of auto insurance we have today. Indeed, the technology will also likely impact diverse industries such as auto mechanics, taxi services, and health care, as well as policing.
Is that the same kind of years that are used by a lot of other technological advances? Because if it is, we won't have commercially available self-driving cars before 2040.
And by then, I hope they're freakin' flying cars, too.
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If I can pile into one drunk and it will drive me home, sign me up. My hunch is that the our current nanny-state way of thinking will never allow this. We will be required to be sober and attentive even if not driving. You'd probably get a ticket for merely reading a book or sending a text message.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
More than that ... if we have self driving cars, why would I pay for insurance at all?
So that some company can sell me a product which mostly works, and when it fails will throw control over to me and make it my liability?
Yeah, sorry ... but no.
Your car is either autonomous, and whoever made it/is responsible to maintain it pays the liability .. or it will hand back to me when it runs out of options, in which case I'll just drive the car myself because I don't trust it.
Either we trust the autonomous cars, or we don't. But I'm not taking any liability for it, and I'm sure as hell not paying for liability for it.
That's just companies wanting the best of both worlds.
You want autonomous cars, fine, then I'm a passenger with no controls. At which point these things are only economically viable in a rental model ... because why the hell would I pay to own one?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
More than that ... if we have self driving cars, why would I pay for insurance at all?
The question is more why not? Your car is just as much a liability as any other on the road. The major difference is that the "self driving" part of your car is less likely to be at fault in an accident (I'm assuming here). So that means you should get a much lower premium. Is that how it's going to be initially? Probably not. It will only change as statistics are collected by insurance companies. After all, that's how insurance works.
Liability covers more than just who is driving. If you fail to properly maintain your vehicle, that's not the self driving feature's fault hence the liability.