The best model for the truly self-driving (no controls) car would be the taxi. In this case, if you hire, rent, or lease the car the onus is on the owner/operator, not the passenger.
If you own one, you will be assumed to control it; even if that’s just a matter of updating the software every 3000 miles. Liability falls on the controller – the owner, who may in turn sue the manufacturer for faulty hard- or soft-ware.
Another issue where I’ve seen no discussion whatsoever is the fact that self driving cars will eliminate DWIs and DUIs. Who will be responsible for speeding tickets or reckless driving? Police departments may have to give the revenue and return to community service.
Who will be responsible, if the car is going too fast or driving erraticly? The owner, who should have had better control of the car; if not in person, then by proxy in the form of the hard- and soft-ware that committed the offense.
For every effect, there is at least one cause. Liability goes to the agent who effected the originating cause. If there’s a driver, he’s the one. If the car is controlled by software, then the supplier of the software is at fault. If it’s a hardware problem, then the manufacturer (or service person) is at fault. And why can’t you get a ticket for un-updated software? You can, for an expired licence.
You are not mentioning all the down stream effects. If driver assist technology and self driving cars continue to create fewer accidents revenue drops for police departments – speeding tickets, emergency rooms – accident victims, ambulance services, towing services, body shops, lawyers – I am missing many more. All this reduction in costs lead to premium reductions. No one will argue for increasing accidents to help the economy, but this is a major economic impact reaching far beyond the insurance industry. BTW, I will buy the first self driving car I can get for my elderly parents.
Auto insurance will not be extinct but will be severely endangered in the era of self driving cars. The only coverages which would be really required are comprehensive, road side assistance (in case of mechanical breakdown or running out of fuel) and product liability. I assume the insurance industry today doesn’t make it’s major portion of the profits through these coverages.
“All this reduction in costs lead to premium reductions.”
THat’s an assumption; in that the software will be a significant improvement over a human driver’s abilities. For my elderly aunts, yes indeed. For most drivers…. maybe? Remember, we’ve had Windows on our computers for 30+ years, and it still crashes and needs patches. When my word processor crashes, no one is killed. A self-driving car? That’s another story; and one which an insurance company will be interested in.
“Auto insurance will not be extinct but will be severely endangered in the era of self driving cars.”
No, there’ll just be different hazards. When your computer’s hard drive crashes (and they always do), you may loose your work. In a self-driving car, that crash could kill you. The odd cosmic ray can “flip” a bit in memory, and you get the “blue screen of death” – too true, at 65 MPH. And them there’s malware…
No, the insurance industry may have different hazards to cover, at different rates of occurrence, but “there’s always something”.
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is holding an informational hearing on Monday, Sept. 15 at The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA to discuss issues related to insuring self-driving cars. Many manufacturers have already begun incorporating self-driving technology features, such as self-parking, adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance. A variety of stakeholders, including insurance industry professionals will serve on the panels. The hearing will also consider public comment. Commissioner Jones recently toured a self-driving car research and development facility, met with engineers and designers and rode in a self-driving car to prepare for the hearing process. The public is invited to attend and participate during the public comment portion. A live stream will also be available for stakeholders unable to attend. http://bit.ly/1pclgf6
As a consumer who is told I must purchase and carry car insurance in order to operate a car, I would expect that a self-driving car could only have liability coverage, or all coverage covered by manufacturer. If there is no possible way that I as a driver can cause an accident then I anticipate paying $0 for car insurance for such a car. How is it appropriate to disseminate liability for an accident to someone who has no influence over the occurrence of said accident. We don’t pay auto-insurance by the meter when we’re in a taxi. Self-driving cars are the same thing. Good luck still trying to sell and require owners of 100% self-driving to pay for carrying their own insurance. Since I can anticipate this problem for the insurance industry and the congresspeople who will have to make these decisions, I expect that in the long run, people being unwilling to pay premiums for a coverage that is as you say no-fault by default, will end up putting insurance companies on the side of consumers when we say en masse, “no” to self-driving cars. As a technologist myself for over 30 years, I actually pray to God that the government doesn’t allow these self-driving cars on the road with me. I don’t want to trust them. I can’t even trust the security of my phone or my wifi, or the clarity of my camera at all times. I’d like to see how the self-driving car is 100% perfect in a variety of constantly changing visibility conditions, and other unanticipated rapidly changing conditions. Except for the super-geeks with invulnerability complexes, I don’t expect this to go too far. Something like google glasses, except 10 times worse.
The best model for the truly self-driving (no controls) car would be the taxi. In this case, if you hire, rent, or lease the car the onus is on the owner/operator, not the passenger.
If you own one, you will be assumed to control it; even if that’s just a matter of updating the software every 3000 miles. Liability falls on the controller – the owner, who may in turn sue the manufacturer for faulty hard- or soft-ware.
Another issue where I’ve seen no discussion whatsoever is the fact that self driving cars will eliminate DWIs and DUIs. Who will be responsible for speeding tickets or reckless driving? Police departments may have to give the revenue and return to community service.
Who will be responsible, if the car is going too fast or driving erraticly? The owner, who should have had better control of the car; if not in person, then by proxy in the form of the hard- and soft-ware that committed the offense.
For every effect, there is at least one cause. Liability goes to the agent who effected the originating cause. If there’s a driver, he’s the one. If the car is controlled by software, then the supplier of the software is at fault. If it’s a hardware problem, then the manufacturer (or service person) is at fault. And why can’t you get a ticket for un-updated software? You can, for an expired licence.
You are not mentioning all the down stream effects. If driver assist technology and self driving cars continue to create fewer accidents revenue drops for police departments – speeding tickets, emergency rooms – accident victims, ambulance services, towing services, body shops, lawyers – I am missing many more. All this reduction in costs lead to premium reductions. No one will argue for increasing accidents to help the economy, but this is a major economic impact reaching far beyond the insurance industry. BTW, I will buy the first self driving car I can get for my elderly parents.
Auto insurance will not be extinct but will be severely endangered in the era of self driving cars. The only coverages which would be really required are comprehensive, road side assistance (in case of mechanical breakdown or running out of fuel) and product liability. I assume the insurance industry today doesn’t make it’s major portion of the profits through these coverages.
“All this reduction in costs lead to premium reductions.”
THat’s an assumption; in that the software will be a significant improvement over a human driver’s abilities. For my elderly aunts, yes indeed. For most drivers…. maybe? Remember, we’ve had Windows on our computers for 30+ years, and it still crashes and needs patches. When my word processor crashes, no one is killed. A self-driving car? That’s another story; and one which an insurance company will be interested in.
“Auto insurance will not be extinct but will be severely endangered in the era of self driving cars.”
No, there’ll just be different hazards. When your computer’s hard drive crashes (and they always do), you may loose your work. In a self-driving car, that crash could kill you. The odd cosmic ray can “flip” a bit in memory, and you get the “blue screen of death” – too true, at 65 MPH. And them there’s malware…
No, the insurance industry may have different hazards to cover, at different rates of occurrence, but “there’s always something”.
California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is holding an informational hearing on Monday, Sept. 15 at The Tech Museum in San Jose, CA to discuss issues related to insuring self-driving cars. Many manufacturers have already begun incorporating self-driving technology features, such as self-parking, adaptive cruise control and collision avoidance. A variety of stakeholders, including insurance industry professionals will serve on the panels. The hearing will also consider public comment. Commissioner Jones recently toured a self-driving car research and development facility, met with engineers and designers and rode in a self-driving car to prepare for the hearing process. The public is invited to attend and participate during the public comment portion. A live stream will also be available for stakeholders unable to attend. http://bit.ly/1pclgf6
Interesting topic.
As a consumer who is told I must purchase and carry car insurance in order to operate a car, I would expect that a self-driving car could only have liability coverage, or all coverage covered by manufacturer. If there is no possible way that I as a driver can cause an accident then I anticipate paying $0 for car insurance for such a car. How is it appropriate to disseminate liability for an accident to someone who has no influence over the occurrence of said accident. We don’t pay auto-insurance by the meter when we’re in a taxi. Self-driving cars are the same thing. Good luck still trying to sell and require owners of 100% self-driving to pay for carrying their own insurance. Since I can anticipate this problem for the insurance industry and the congresspeople who will have to make these decisions, I expect that in the long run, people being unwilling to pay premiums for a coverage that is as you say no-fault by default, will end up putting insurance companies on the side of consumers when we say en masse, “no” to self-driving cars. As a technologist myself for over 30 years, I actually pray to God that the government doesn’t allow these self-driving cars on the road with me. I don’t want to trust them. I can’t even trust the security of my phone or my wifi, or the clarity of my camera at all times. I’d like to see how the self-driving car is 100% perfect in a variety of constantly changing visibility conditions, and other unanticipated rapidly changing conditions. Except for the super-geeks with invulnerability complexes, I don’t expect this to go too far. Something like google glasses, except 10 times worse.