Autonomous Vehicles and Insurance

Abstract

Autonomous vehicle (AV) is defined as a motor vehicle that uses artificial intelligence (AI), sensors, cameras and global positioning system to perceive and cognize its environment, decide what route to take to its destination, and drive without any human input. The term AV is broadly used to denote autonomous trucks and autonomous cars. Currently, every major automobile manufacturer is researching extensively to make AVs a commercial reality. It is predicted that an entirely autonomous car, also known as a driverless car or self-driving car, will be a reality in the next two decades. It is forecasted that when it happens, our roads will be safer as the driverless cars will always be attentive to the environment, obey the traffic rules, and never get tired, distracted, drunk or have fits of road rage. 

This article attempts to provide an overview regarding the levels of automation in AV and the impact AVs will make on industries including auto and insurance. It may be easy to guess that before AV becomes a reality, it will have to overcome a lot of technological, operational, and regulatory challenges. This article also talks about two such interesting challenges: the first one is about ethical decision making that AVs must learn and the second is with respect to determining who is to be held liable for the AV crashes and accidents.