Ben Howarth, Policy Adviser, Motor & Liability, ABIOn Wednesday, the Queen announced that there would be new legislation to ensure appropriate insurance is available to support the use of autonomous and driverless vehicles.
Our expectation is that this will focus on the changes needed to the existing motor insurance model for vehicles ready for sale within the next five years.
Insurers strongly support this new technology – which has the potential to be as important a road safety innovation as the invention of the seatbelt. In fact, with the latest Department for Transport statistics suggesting that 94% of accidents are in some way caused by human error, the automated driving revolution could have even greater significance.
Through the ABI and Thatcham Research’s Automated Driving Insurer Group (ADIG), insurers have already begun detailed discussions about achieving the Government’s ambition in practice. There are some challenging questions that need answering to ensure the best possible outcome for consumers.
We will need to think carefully about how insurers will understand the different functionalities that will appear in cars (particularly if upgrades are added to cars after the consumer has bought insurance), how to establish whether the car was in automated mode at the point of an incident and agree what additional training drivers might need for the periods when cars are switching between conventional and autonomous driving.
Drivers must not be given unrealistic expectations – for the foreseeable future, we don’t expect these cars to have sufficient back-up features to allow drivers to completely disengage from the road. Drivers will still need to be fully trained – and sober – so they can resume control at short notice if needed.
That’s why, for now, they will be ‘automated’ cars and not ‘driverless’. All the stakeholders involved in this will need to work collaboratively – and that’s why we have begun to invite different car manufacturers to our ADIG meetings so we can talk these issues through. That’s also why several insurers are active partners in Government-funded trials.
In recent years, the insurance industry has actively embraced Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), which has been shown to reduce third party injuries by up to 45%. The reduced premiums available when AEB is fitted as standard have been a key factor driving this technology – and shows that the interests of insurers, car manufacturers and drivers often overlap.
AEB is a key step on the road to an automated driving revolution that has the potential to save lives at the same time as driving economic growth. But we also know some consumers are worried. They don’t want to be blamed for accidents involving automated cars that weren’t their fault.
They want to make sure that, when they do have to make a claim, the process isn’t more complicated for an automated car than it would have been for a conventional vehicle. Before the legislation announced in the Queen’s Speech is published, we expect a public consultation to look at the technical detail of how this will work in practice.
The ABI will be working with our members to respond to this consultation, and top of our agenda will be developing a system that offers re-assurance to consumers – both those who want to drive these new vehicles and those that might be caught up in an accident.
AXA’s David Williams (the chair of ADIG) and Thatcham Research’s Matthew Avery will be discussing the implications of automated driving for insurance with a representative of the Department for Transport at a breakout session on Automated Driving at the ABI’s Motor Conference on Tuesday 18th October, hosted in partnership with DAC Beachcroft. Further information and booking details for the conference are available here.
Ben Howarth is Policy Adviser, Motor & Liability at the Association of British Insurers (ABI)