Skip to main content

Motor insurance for autonomous vehicles ‘will shift from drivers to OEMs’

Autonomous vehicles are likely to increase insurance claims related to product parameters rather than driver liability New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Impact of Automated Vehicles on Motor Insurance Market, finds that motor insurers will move away from the driver-centric strategy to follow one or a combination of three models as automated vehicles become common: product-centric evaluation; brand-centric evaluation; system-centric evaluation.
October 19, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Autonomous vehicles are likely to increase insurance claims related to product parameters rather than driver liability

New analysis from 2097 Frost & Sullivan, Impact of Automated Vehicles on Motor Insurance Market, finds that motor insurers will move away from the driver-centric strategy to follow one or a combination of three models as automated vehicles become common: product-centric evaluation; brand-centric evaluation; system-centric evaluation.

The current system of calculating motor insurance premiums places importance on driver-related factors such as age, gender and driving record. However, the introduction of autonomous vehicles will turn the spotlight on vehicle-related parameters. As the motor insurance business goes through this transformation, the future holds vast potential for novel risk evaluation models.

“Along with higher product liability, the responsibility of insuring the vehicle will shift from vehicle owners to manufacturers,” said Frost & Sullivan Automotive and Transportation senior research analyst Kamalesh Mohanarangam. “Further, all excesses currently covered by the insured will be shared among several stakeholders, such as road-operators and local transport authorities.”

As the risk of accidents will fall drastically with the advent of autonomous vehicles, the insurance premium to cover that risk too will drop significantly. Nevertheless, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers will increase insurance spend to cover their share of product liability risk, thereby offsetting the shrinkage in consumer-driven insurance revenues.

With OEMs and tier 1 suppliers looking to ensure fool proof product safety, methods to access risk and certify the product will assume greater importance. The traditional method of underwriting that uses historic data will take a back-seat, paving the way for a new breed of underwriters capable of evaluating driving algorithms and assigning a relevant risk priority number.

“Moreover, insurers will develop new products for risks arising out of innovations,” noted Mohanarangam. “For instance, with the digitalisation of automobiles, insurers will provide cyber cover for protection against cyber-attacks and hacks.”

In the wake of plummeting premiums, motor insurance will become part of other insurance policies and value-added packages as stakeholders look to new avenues of profit generation in a changing environment.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Intersection management, cooperative infrastructures - what next?
    February 1, 2012
    What do recent vehicle recalls mean for future cooperative infrastructures? Anthony Smith takes a look. As ITS industry stakeholders converge on Amsterdam for the 2010 Cooperative Mobility Showcase, an unprecedentedly wide range of technologies will be on display demonstrating what might be achievable in the future from innovations based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications.
  • DriveNow London expands car-sharing fleet with EVs
    May 20, 2015
    London’s DriveNow has expanded its car-sharing service with the addition of thirty BMW i3 electric vehicles (EVs). , The BMW/Sixt joint venture offers one-way flexible car-sharing in the North London boroughs of Islington, Hackney, Haringey and Waltham Forest. Following its launch in December 2014, this takes the growing fleet total to 270 vehicles being used across the boroughs, offering residents and businesses a viable alternative to use of private cars with it's on demand, pay per use model. Commentin
  • Hybrid and EVs growth impact on traction motors predicted by Frost & Sullivan
    May 17, 2012
    Electrification in vehicles is a key trend in the automotive industry. The increase in electric components within vehicles is boosting the market for traction motors and Frost & Sullivan says it anticipates the European traction motor market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50 per cent for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). Permanent magnet motors are expected to dominate the market by virtue of their performance and efficiency. However, the growing concern over t
  • Daimler’s double take sees machine vision move in-vehicle
    December 13, 2013
    Jason Barnes looks at Daimler’s Intelligent Drive programme to consider how machine vision has advanced the state of the art of vision-based in-vehicle systems. Traditionally, radar was the in-vehicle Driver Assistance System (DAS) technology of choice, particularly for applications such as adaptive cruise control and pre-crash warning generation. Although vision-based technology has made greater inroads more recently, it is not a case of ‘one sensor wins’. Radar and vision are complementary and redundancy