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

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Why AI could be the saviour of public transport – if we let it
    April 16, 2025
    Get it right and the rewards could be there. Thomas Ableman looks at how transport in the UK – and beyond – might be transformed by artificial intelligence…
    Read More
  • Autonomous car accidents revealed in California
    May 13, 2015
    Associated Press (AP) recently reported that three of Google's self-driving cars have been involved in accidents since September, when California allowed them to begin using public roads. The parts supplier Delphi Automotive had one accident, which an accident report the company provided to AP showed was not its fault. Delphi said at the time the car was being driven by the person the DMV requires behind the wheel during testing. US consumer rights advocate Consumer Watchdog has now called on Google
    Read More
  • US Cities push for smarter poles
    June 25, 2018
    US Cities The need to connect existing infrastructure has led various US transit authorities into imaginative alleyways: David Crawford examines some new roles for street furniture. US cities are vying with each other in developing schemes to create a new generation of connected places. Their strategies include taking advantage of their streetlight poles’ height and ubiquity to give them new roles in supporting intelligent nodes. They are now being equipped for collecting real-time data on key transport
    Read More
  • Call for targeted safety measures to prevent road deaths among young drivers
    January 26, 2017
    Zero tolerance on drink driving, additional hazard perception training and graduated forms of licensing should become the norm to help tackle the risks faced by young drivers and motorcycle riders in Europe, according to the YEARS report (Young Europeans Acting for Road Safety. More than 3,800 young people (aged 18-24) are killed each year on EU roads – the biggest single cause of death for this age group. A report by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) and the UK Parliamentary Advisory Council
    Read More

Highlighted Content