Robotic Driverless Vehicles (RDVs) are going to be a reality in the near future. With more than 9 automotive manufacturers already testing RDVs, and Google planning to release driverless luxury car brands such as BMW and Mercedes by 2018-2020, the market has already started sensing the arrival of driverless cars. Further, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has estimated that up to 75% of all vehicles will be autonomous by 2040. According to Forbes, the driverless car could reduce accidents up to 90%, which translates to 4.95 million fewer accidents, 30,000 fewer deaths, 2 million fewer injuries, and $400 billion in accident-related cost savings. All these statistics are likely to impact the auto insurance industry.

The effects of RDVs is requiring the industry to change its business dynamics such as greater portion of the liability will be moved from the car owner to the car manufacturer and infrastructure providers (federal and state). Currently, insurance premium can vary depending on many driver-related factors such as gender, age, marital status and drunk-driving offenses. For example, the average auto insurance rate for a Michigan female teenager is about $2,730 per year, while the rate for an average US married female is $1,230 (a 122% difference). Likewise many driver-related factors will influence the insurance premium. With the introduction of driverless cars insurance premiums will not vary by driver demographics as cars will be mostly controlled by robots. This will hugely impact insurance companies as insurers make their profits on the float from their premium income, and unless they can tap alternative sources of revenue, the markedly lower premiums will adversely affect the profit margins of many insurers.

Uautoinsurance.com analyzed average car insurance rates by driver segment to provide a clear picture on insurance savings with the introduction of RDVs.

RDVs could eat away a majority of up to $200 billion in the personal and commercial insurance premiums market. To mitigate all these risks, insurers need to prepare now to develop products and pricing for the kinds of automated driving that consumers and commercial enterprises are likely to demand.

The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of RoboticsTomorrow

Featured Product

3D Vision: Ensenso B now also available as a mono version!

This compact 3D camera series combines a very short working distance, a large field of view and a high depth of field - perfect for bin picking applications. With its ability to capture multiple objects over a large area, it can help robots empty containers more efficiently. Now available from IDS Imaging Development Systems. In the color version of the Ensenso B, the stereo system is equipped with two RGB image sensors. This saves additional sensors and reduces installation space and hardware costs. Now, you can also choose your model to be equipped with two 5 MP mono sensors, achieving impressively high spatial precision. With enhanced sharpness and accuracy, you can tackle applications where absolute precision is essential. The great strength of the Ensenso B lies in the very precise detection of objects at close range. It offers a wide field of view and an impressively high depth of field. This means that the area in which an object is in focus is unusually large. At a distance of 30 centimetres between the camera and the object, the Z-accuracy is approx. 0.1 millimetres. The maximum working distance is 2 meters. This 3D camera series complies with protection class IP65/67 and is ideal for use in industrial environments.

More Products

Feature Your Product