Tesla Is So Sure Its Cars Are Safe That It Now Offers Insurance For Life (mashable.com)

In the self-driving future envisioned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, car owners might be saying "goodbye" to a whole lot more than steering wheels. From a Mashable report: Musk is so sure of the safety features bundled into Tesla vehicles that his company has begun offering some customers a lifetime insurance and maintenance package at the time of purchase. No more monthly insurance bills. No more unexpected repair costs. "We've been doing it quietly," Tesla President of Global Sales and Service Jonathan McNeill explained on the call, "but in Asia in particular where we started this, now the majority of Tesla cars are sold with an insurance product that is customized to Tesla, that takes into account not only the Autopilot safety features but also the maintenance costs of the car." "It's our vision in the future that we'll be able to offer a single price for the car, maintenance and insurance in a really compelling offering for the consumer," added McNeill. "And we're currently doing that today."

Comments

Whose life?

[almitydave]

Insurance for life on Autopilot safety features? Whose life? Mine, or the car's?

Re:Supportive

[JustNiz]

Its not free. The price of the insurance is added to the purchase price of the car if you select it. And it probably isn't cheap.

Re:Yeah, with a fucking asterisk

[Gordo_1]

Do you also stand at the door at parties to offer couples the odds of them remaining together long-term?

Relax dude, most human beings understand that if the company they get insurance from stops existing, they no longer have insurance from that company. If you don't trust that company, then um don't buy insurance from them?

All-In-One likely to be the future norm

[DumbSwede]

If you bought a chauffeur service you would expect the service to pay the chauffeur, maintain the car, and maintain the insurance. This isn’t much different (other than you own the car). Tesla is large enough to create the shared risk pool that insurance is founded on. Better yet, by also being the insurance it incentives them to make their cars as safe as possible. I don’t image regular insurance companies are too happy about this and will propose various strawman arguments in an attempt to keep Tesla and others from doing this once self-driving cars really get popular. In fact this all in one model is about the only way self-driving cars will be able to work. Self driving cars will only be safe as long as they are always maintained in top condition. Sensors have to be functioning and calibrated. Brakes have to be in good working order to maintain the cars safe expected stopping distance. Software upgrades are needed. Etc...

Once driver error is not the major factor in accidents it just doesn't make sense to keep the old insurance structure as the fault will almost always be with the manufacturer. This does of course reduce the insurance company's incentive (in this case the manufacture) to really go after claims due to negligence, though that will still be a private legal suit option. Let make sure providing the insurance doesn't also take away your right to sue.

Re:All-In-One likely to be the future norm

[Strudelkugel]

This an interesting example of financial engineering. Since legal theory seems to be heading in the direction of holding the manufacturer responsible for incidents involving cars with semi to full autonomous driving modes, why shouldn't car makers include insurance with the car? At that point it is just product liability insurance.

The change will have an interesting effect: Over time, fewer drivers will have their own insurance which is going to shrink the risk pool. I don't know where the tipping point is, but some day the premiums for individual car insurance will skyrocket. What happens when the liability coverage for an individual driver with a good record costs $3,000? $8,000 / year? That's really going to increase the sales/use of self-driving cars. Manufacturers like Tesla might as well get ahead of the curve.