UK insurance chief says babies born today may never need to learn to drive

June 6, 2017 Read time: 1 min

Axa UK’s chief executive, Amanda Blanc, has predicted that "babies born today may never have to take a driving test".

Self-driving technology is moving so fast that autonomous cars could be on the roads within 15 years, she told the Daily Telegraph, and it is important that the insurance industry is prepared for their arrival, when vehicles could be controlled by a computer. She commented that the insurance industry has a key role to play in building a driverless future and the insurance risks involved, adding that "driverless cars will not be able to take to the roads [without that]”.

Blanc warned that the insurance sector will have to adapt, although insurance rates may fall in line with lower accident rates. She noted that a car in auto-pilot is expected to make roads "much safer and increase mobility for vulnerable members of society," with those unable to get car insurance now likely to be able to in future.

Axa is involved in several Government-backed projects which aim to produce a blueprint for the legal implications of driverless cars, while 4236 Direct Line is developing a trial into self-driving technology with FiveAI, a Cambridge-based artificial intelligence firm.

Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • January 7, 2014
    Study forecasts growth of self-driving cars
    In its latest study, “Emerging Technologies: Autonomous cars—not if, but when,”, IHS Automotive forecasts total worldwide sales of self-driving cars (SDC) will grow from nearly 230 thousand in 2025 to 11.8 million in 2035 – seven million SDCs with both driver control and autonomous control and 4.8 million that have only autonomous control. In all, there should be nearly 54 million self-driving cars in use globally by 2035. The study anticipates that nearly all of the vehicles in use are likely to be self
    Read More
  • February 2, 2012
    Governments must look beyond short-term spending of public funds
    Phil Pettitt, Chief Executive of innovITS, the UK's ITS Centre of Excellence, argues that governments need to look beyond the short-term when looking to pump-prime economic recovery with public funds. It seems, in the current economic climate, that a 'good' day is one in which no company is announcing job cuts or going into administration. Consumer demand is down and businesses are retrenching, cutting costs and fretting over the consequences of shrinking opportunities and order books. It has not been this
    Read More
  • June 16, 2020
    Speed limits: is 20 really plenty?
    Speed kills – which means cutting speed should cut collisions. But is it that simple?
    Read More
  • June 28, 2017
    Autonomous grocery delivery trials in Greenwich
    The TRL-led GATEway Project, together with Ocado Technology (a division of Ocado, the online-only supermarket) is running the UK’s first trials of an autonomous vehicle around the Berkeley Homes, Royal Arsenal Riverside development in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London.
    Read More

Highlighted Content