Self Driving Cars, 80% Off Insurance?

[EDDIE51]

It has been estimated that as 94% of accidents are caused by human error insurance premiums could be reduced by 80% once 'autonomous cars' are the only ones on the road
http://blogs.breakeryard.com/blog/legal-issues-autonomous-cars/?utm_source=Customers-10-2013&utm_campaign=ec2b4876a4-February_2016_p_to_z_Newsletter_2016&;utm_medium=email&;utm_term=0_c085751039-ec2b4876a4-78798353
What do you think?

[ToraToraTora]

stock answer: When I can get in my car rat ar5ed and sleep on the back seat and have it take me home and any death and destruction it causes is not my fault, we can have self drive. ie never, the legal problems are insurmountable.

[ToraToraTora]

It might just be feasible if 100% of traffic was autonomous but how would we ever get to that state of affairs? Motorbikes? Bicycles? Trucks? pedestrians?

[Svejk]

Personally, I'd be surprised if 'self-driving' cars don't become the norm. Question of when, not if, imo.

[jno]

If the human element is taken out altogether, why shouldn't the premiums be zero? If all accidents can be attributed to mechanical or programming error, manufacturers should held liable for them.

[Ellipsis]

If it ever happens (big if) the cost of the insurance may well be moved to the manufacturer, which would make life interesting, but ultimately it would still be down to the consumer to pay.

> If all accidents can be attributed to mechanical or programming error, manufacturers should held liable for them.

Hmm, life is not quite that simple. E.g. the owner is still responsible for maintaining the vehicle.

Also the "transition period" will be interesting, when driverless cars are involved in accidents with normal cars.

Also when two (or more) driverless cars from two (or more) different manufacturers collide, establishing fault is going to be interesting ...

[ToraToraTora]

"If the human element is taken out altogether, " - how? are you going to ban cycling, motorcycling? walking? kids, cats dogs pigeons?

[jomifl]

jno, don't forget acts of god, ...tree falls on car, flood washes away bridge...all the usual litte problems of everyday life.

[ToraToraTora]

there was a recent crash round here caused by a cat, how are we going to stop them running across the road? Even fully autonomous vehicles have to obey the laws of physics. If a child runs out it may not be physically possible to avoid. Lovely idea but it will never happen.

[jomifl]

T3, in France te driving rules require that drivers do not try to avoid collisions with stray animals as they may cause an accident that harms a human. There is some sense in the idea but some French people seem to think that they are obliged to run over stray animals.

[ToraToraTora]

we have similar rules here jomifl and I believe that we are not supposed to try and avoid cats but you cannot override the basic human instinct to act at the time and brake, even though you are legally allowed to squash it.

[jomifl]

T3, agreed re. reflex reactions imagine running over a small child dressed in a onesie, your reason in court being 'I thought it was a penguin'

http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article4693881.ece/BINARY/Kids-Penguin-Onesie.png

[CrapAtCryptics]

I still think we are a long way away from risking peoples lives on the offchance a programmer has got his algorithms correct. There are so many possibilities that a car might encounter i cant see how they can all be allowed for. When you consider the amount of problems people have keeping a laptop running properly multiply that umpteen times to a car.

[ToraToraTora]

bang on CAC, they work on an airfield in trials but real world? forget it. When they pass my test in the first answer above then that'll be the day. Not in my life time.

[Hopkirk]

I drive big Mercedes trucks with 'lane departure warning' fitted.

A sensor at the bottom of the windscreen detects the lines at the edge of the lanes, and sound a warning if you cross without indicating.

You would be surprised how often it gets confused and gives false warnings.
Sometimes this is where they have had lines for road works, and have painted them out but the covering has worn away.

Sometimes there is no obvious reason why it thinks I am off course.

If we trusted this technology to do my job for me, heaven knows what would happen.

[Canary42]

It depends what you mean by "only ones on the road".

If the so-called autonomous cars run on protected pathways (like trains do now) then obviously 80% reduction in premium would seem sensible.

But, as has already been stated, if thay are sharing the road with pedestrians, cyclists, animals etc., then it's a totally different matter.

[Ellipsis]

Although I'm sceptical about the take-up speed in the UK, it has to be pointed out that Google's driverless cars have logged more than 1.2 million miles on the roads (not test tracks) of the United States:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_self-driving_car#Road_testing
In June 2015, the team announced that their vehicles have now driven over 1,000,000 mi (1,600,000 km) ... and that in the process they had encountered 200,000 stop signs, 600,000 traffic lights, and 180 million other vehicles. Google also announced its prototype vehicles were being road tested in Mountain View, California. During testing, the prototypes' speed cannot exceed 25 mph (40 km/h) and will have safety drivers aboard the entire time. As a consequence, one of the vehicles was stopped by police for impeding traffic flow. As of September 2015, Google had test driven their fleet of vehicles 1,210,676 mi (1,948,394 km). Google has expanded its road-testing to the state of Texas, where regulations do not prohibit cars without pedals and a steering wheel.

[Hopkirk]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-18/humans-are-slamming-into-driverless-cars-and-exposing-a-key-flaw

[ToraToraTora]

interesting report Hoppy, so these 100% safe driverless cars have been crashing, well I never!

[Ellipsis]

"Driverless vehicles have never been at fault, the study found: They’re usually hit from behind in slow-speed crashes by inattentive or aggressive humans unaccustomed to machine motorists that always follow the rules and proceed with caution."

[THECORBYLOON]

A Google car hit a bus at slow speed earlier this month in California http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/29/googles-self-driving-car-hits-municipal-bus-in-minor-crash.html