Driverless cars and the implications for insurance
Thinkpiece
Publication date:
29 July 2015
Last updated:
25 February 2025
Author(s):
Andrew Miller
The autonomous (driverless) car is on its way. There will be no "big bang" but introduction of increasing levels of automation over a number of years. In fact, partially autonomous vehicles are on sale now and are increasing in availability and system ability.
Engineers face a huge challenge to create highly and then fully autonomous cars, which creates uncertainty about the timing of their availability.
There are societal questions which must be answered before highly and fully autonomous cars are accepted and legal. The regulatory framework allowing highly automated cars on the road requires review.
This change in the fleet will take a long time. It takes at least 10 years to get a new technology on every new car and a further 10-15 to get the majority of the UK fleet changed. Therefore the earliest we could predict a near 100% highly autonomous UK fleet by 2040 and a fully autonomous UK fleet by 2050.
There are significant impacts on risk and the provision of insurance products. Ultimately, there will be a shift away from insurance for the driver towards insurance for the vehicle i.e. towards product liability insurance. In the transition, risk accurate information about the insured vehicle will become more important. For the moment, motor insurance remains essential as long as the driver is required to be in control.
This article follows an Insurance Institute of London educational visit to Thatcham Research in Berkshire in May 2015, in which the CII asked the author to contribute an essay on this topic.
This document is believed to be accurate but is not intended as a basis of knowledge upon which advice can be given. Neither the author (personal or corporate), the CII group, local institute or Society, or any of the officers or employees of those organisations accept any responsibility for any loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of the data or opinions included in this material. Opinions expressed are those of the author or authors and not necessarily those of the CII group, local institutes, or Societies.