July/August Volume 28, Number 4 | |||||
How Will Driverless Cars Affect Your Business?It’s predicted that driverless cars will account for 25 percent of global car sales by 2035. How will this affect your business and your employees? Features such as adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, automated parking and lane departure and forward-collision warnings are already making the majority of new cars semi-autonomous. The next level of innovation, implementing automated acceleration, braking and steering, will make cars completely autonomous. How Will Insurance Coverages and Premiums Be Affected?
Obtaining and reviewing driver profiles for insurance purposes could be irrelevant or at least less critical once cars are autonomous. The culprit in an accident will be the technology, with liability for injury or damage placed squarely with the car manufacturer. Insurers in the UK have already developed “dual insurance policies” for driverless cars, which look directly to manufacturers for reimbursement of collision claims paid. Will Employee Driving Records Be Necessary Anymore?
Data from the Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss Data Institute show that cars equipped with forward-collision warning and automatic braking have far fewer accidents. Safety experts believe removing human error from the equation entirely should be the goal. If this happens, then as long as employees are not able to override the autopilot features of the cars they’re in, employers won’t need to worry about driving records anymore. It’s questionable whether that’s practical, though. Even though airline pilots seldom override autopilot controls, they need to be able to do so in emergencies. Employee driving records can also provide valuable information to employers for other reasons, particularly in making hiring decisions. Cyber Risk Maybe the most troubling aspect of driverless cars is the possibility of cyber risk. Vehicle technology could be hacked to create traffic problems and cause accidents and even terrorist events. In July 2015, Fiat Chrysler had to recall 1.4 million Jeeps when security researchers discovered a way to hack into the Jeep’s steering controls. Changing Car Ownership Patterns
In the past few years, automobile ownership has been declining, with more people using public transportation and ride sharing. There also seems to be less enthusiasm for cars, particularly among Millennials. Once self-driving cars become the norm, maybe only a few people will actually drive cars anymore, and maybe they will be able to do so only on designated roads. |
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How Will Driverless Cars Affect Your Business? How to Control Employee Dishonesty Do You Need Property Insurance Even If You’re Just Renting? Commercial Drone Insurance is Here
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