As self driving cars gain popularity, one of the biggest questions regulators have to face today is;<\/span><\/p>

\u201cwho is at fault in a self driving car accident?\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

Currently when an accident occurs, the insurance company of the at-fault driver covers <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the property and bodily damages sustained by the victim. <\/span><\/p>

At the moment however, when a computer is driving the vehicle, liability remains a significant grey area.<\/span><\/p>

<\/p>

It might not seem relevant, but a <\/span>Business Insider<\/span><\/a> report puts the estimated number of self driving cars on the road at 10 million by 2020. <\/span><\/p>

In addition to Google, Mercedes, BMW, and Tesla all have released some type of self driving vehicle in the past couple of years.<\/span><\/p>

Who bears liability in an accident?<\/span><\/h2>

Although insurance is a fairly complex field, <\/span>The Huffington Post<\/span><\/a> interviewed <\/span>Marc Mayerson<\/span><\/a>, a lawyer and adjunct professor of Insurance Law at Georgetown University. <\/span><\/p>

In the interview Mayerson mentioned that, \u201cIn theory, self-driving cars would not create negligence liability for the passenger, non-driver, and owner of the car.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Based on the previous model, auto insurance premiums should plummet for the average driver since when it comes to car accidents, liability for property damage is a fraction of what might amount from hospital bills and physical injuries. <\/span><\/p>

So who bears the burden of liability then in the case of an accident? In the previously referenced Huffington Post article, Mayerson suggests that:<\/span><\/p>

\u201cone model would be to have the car manufacturer bear all the liability and impose that liability simply based on the autonomous car\u2019s being a substantial cause of the injury.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>

Put simply, if the accident were due to a computer malfunction, the manufacturer would have to cover the cost of damages.<\/span><\/p>

While this should result in lower auto insurance premiums for most drivers, the cost of self driving cars will likely rise to account for the increased risk.<\/span><\/p>

The <\/span>Los Angeles Times<\/span><\/a> has a slightly different take on the issue. They note that over the past few years insurance premiums have been rising in recent years due to the number of \u00a0crashes that reflect more miles being driven, higher car sales, and an increase in distracted driving.<\/span><\/p>

Even though innovations such as automated emergency braking, blind spot alerts, and lane departure warnings are helping to make driving safer, they haven\u2019t resulted in immediate premium reductions.<\/span><\/p>

In their article, the Times spoke with California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones who said, \u201cSo far, we haven\u2019t seen significant changes in claims or experience that would warrant changes in [customer] rates,\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Eight key elements for transformation<\/span><\/h2>

According to a report by <\/span>KPMG<\/span><\/a>, in order for autonomous vehicles to go mainstream, it won\u2019t happen as part of a singular change. Rather it\u2019s going to require a combination of eight elements which are discussed below.<\/span><\/p>

<\/p>

1. Integrity of technology;<\/strong> \u00a0Today the fundamental technologies for driver autonomy exist. The key to success for the future is having them converge into something more advanced.<\/span><\/li>
2. Capability accessibility:<\/strong> \u00a0While traditional manufacturers have vehicles which are incrementally becoming autonomous, high tech companies such as Google, Tesla, and Apple are likely going to leapfrog into self driving vehicles.<\/span><\/li>
3. Regulatory permission:<\/strong> \u00a0As of earlier this year, sixteen states (including the District of Columbia) have introduced bills related to self-driving vehicles. The NHTSA is on the verge of providing a full endorsement of autonomous vehicles.<\/span><\/li>
4. Infrastructure availability:<\/strong> \u00a0At the moment autonomous vehicles are able to use existing roads without any upfront investment required. Overtime however, roads will likely evolve to better accommodate autonomous vehicles. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>
5. Legal responsibility:<\/strong> \u00a0As the vehicle becomes more advanced determining who is at fault in an accident needs to be clarified. The regulations will need to be resolved in parallel alongside autonomous technology development.<\/span><\/li>
6. Consumer adoption:<\/strong> \u00a0Once consumers understand the benefits of self driving vehicles, they\u2019re more likely to use them. The biggest challenge for manufacturers is addressing the value propositions of each customer.<\/span><\/li>
7. Mobility services:<\/strong> \u00a0Now that ride-hailing is a standard option for urban drivers, this new model of vehicle usage are going to carry over to autonomous vehicles.<\/span><\/li>
8. Data management:<\/strong> \u00a0Autonomous driving requires a significant amount of data which is going to grow exponentially as these vehicles gain popularity.<\/span><\/li><\/ol>

   As far as the estimated timetable for the mainstream adoption of autonomous cars, with vehicle to vehicle communication – KPMG will potentially issue their mandate in 2018. The estimated implementation is approximately 2022.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   As self driving cars gain popularity, one of the biggest questions regulators have to face today is; \u201cwho is at fault in a self driving car accident?\u201d Currently when an accident occurs, the insurance company of the at-fault driver covers \u00a0the property and bodily damages sustained by the victim. At the moment however, when a computer is driving the vehicle, … Continue reading “The Evolution of Insurance for Self Driving Cars”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[225],"class_list":["post-4275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-driving-cars","tag-self-driving-liability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.trafficsafetystore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}