‘The big problem is unknown risk’: the insurance worry of self-driving cars
The small, yellow vehicle that ferries passengers around Harwell science park in Oxfordshire looks strikingly different from other vehicles on UK roads.
Since December 2021, workers at the site have been using the bubble-shaped, electric bus to get around, participating in an experiment with major implications for transport policy and insurers. The steering wheel of the vehicle has been removed as part of work to make it fully self-driving. It is the first such vehicle allowed on the UK’s public roads.
The experiment is taking place as the first mass-market vehicles with some self-driving capability are close to arriving in the UK market. Both Mercedes and BMW are preparing to launch UK models that will be able to keep in a lane and drive themselves in slow-moving motorway traffic.
Williams said customers should also benefit financially if there were fewer accidents. “You have to believe that premiums are going to go down.”
However, Milliner insisted that, while the new technology was generally a “positive”, there were also “elephant traps”. It was vital, he said, to anticipate the drawbacks and ensure other more vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists were also protected.
“You do not want to be inviting these things into your world without thinking about that.”
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Robert Wright
