Ready for the Fast Lane?

The UK is keen to begin reaping the benefits of the autonomous vehicles market. In October, a Guardian report detailed the rapid progress of Driven – a £13.6 million consortium comprising local authority planners, insurers, cyber-security and data experts, and the UK tech firm Oxbotica – which has been testing how autonomous fleet vehicles operate in complex urban environments.

In February of this year, a number of news reports described how as part of a separate UK government-funded consortium, an autonomous Nissan Leaf completed a 230-mile journey unaided. The trip represented the longest and most complex journey by a self-driving vehicle in the UK to date.

To be sure, the promise of autonomous vehicles hits a sweet spot for businesses and consumers alike: Industry experts predict that once the technology is ready, self-driving vehicles will improve upon humans’ ability to manoeuvere around traffic and, in turn, will reduce traffic accidents, harmful emissions and travel time. Those benefits could help businesses and consumers save money on the costs of labour, fuel and insurance.

Clearing roadblocks

In the meantime, though, there is research to be done. Dr Graeme Smith, Programme Director of Driven and Senior Vice President of Oxbotica, conceded in the Guardian report that we are still five years from having autonomous taxis on the roads and 10 years from having autonomous vehicles in car showrooms: “The car is a bauble on top of the iceberg,” he said. “Underpinning that is a host of other things that need to happen, from cybersecurity to ensure we have constant, secure communication; insurers for product liability and real-life risk assessment.”

Even when the vehicles are ready for the mainstream, there will be hurdles. The Statista report indicated the growth of the market will depend on how quickly consumers embrace the vehicles – more than 70 percent believe the vehicles will be vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks – and whether or not manufacturers can scale up their production.

The response from insurers should evolve in the years ahead too. While there is potential for autonomous vehicles to reduce insurance premium, that can only happen once the data behind the technology makes a strong case for the safety and security of the vehicles.

“What will be helpful to insurance underwriters is the ever-expanding amount of real-time data that autonomous vehicles will provide once they have accumulated experience on the road,” said Mark Lawrence, Technology Underwriting Development Manager for Travelers Europe. “The more information we can collect, the better knowledge we will have about how these vehicles respond and what risks remain to be managed – and when you have vehicles relying on secure networks to be able to function properly, there will always be risks.”