Those being born today may never get the chance to drive a car. With autonomous driving advancing as quickly as it, by the time these youngsters are old enough to get behind the wheel, they may not need to. We may not even have those types of vehicles on the road by then! Even insurance executives are beginning to recognize that the sector is going to have quite a shake-up soon.
It’s strange to think that those born this year and likely to never experience driving a car, taking driving lessons, or going through that test at the end of it all. Axa UK’s chief executive, Amanda Blanc, has predicted that in as little as 15 years self-driving cars could take over our roads and preparing for this change is crucial for the industry.
For insurers, it means building a whole new framework of insurance for what will happen in an accident where the driver is likely to be artificial intelligence (AI). “Driverless cars will not be able to take to the roads [without that],” said Blanc. Her estimates that kids born today won’t need to take a driving test are slightly more optimistic than those released from Intel on Friday. The tech giant is predicting that driverless cars will take over in the way we travel, work, and live and all of that is to happen by 2050.
For the UK, where car insurance is mandatory, it’s likely that premiums will become much lower due to the lower accident rates of autonomous vehicles. Blanc noted that a car in auto-pilot should make roads “much safer and increase mobility for vulnerable members of society”, and allow those who find it difficult to obtain car insurance to be able to move forward.
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