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Three industry insiders give their views on this issue.
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David Williams
Technical director
AXA Insurance
Automated vehicle technology could drastically reduce the number of accidents on our roads, and insurers are at the heart of making that happen. In addition, driverless vehicles could impact society in a number of positive ways – providing modes of transport for those currently unable to drive, tackling congestion, lowering emissions and reforming city planning.
Motor insurance has been compulsory in the UK for more than 80 years, but the industry has only made an underwriting profit once since 1993. We should be welcoming any disruption with open arms – and with insurers leading the charge in driverless, it puts us very much in control of our destiny.
Teresa Cracas
Senior vice president and chief risk officer
The Cincinnati Insurance Companies
The insurance industry has always supported innovations that help save lives. We’re learning that potential life-saving benefits could come from removing distracted humans from driving. And risks related to cars will still need to be managed, even if the potential liability shifts from driver to manufacturer.
While it’s still too early to know exactly what impact driverless cars will have on our industry, we know that we cannot sit and wait for this change – or any change – to happen. Carriers need to understand what’s coming and develop strategies that help agents serve their clients as the world around us evolves.
John Matley
Insurance leader
Future of Mobility Practice
Deloitte Consulting
We believe we will see a seismic shift from traditional personal lines policies to a future in which personal and commercial lines will blur and combine very closely as car-sharing and ride-sharing begin to change lifestyles.
For the players who are extremely focused on personal [motor] policies and don’t have commercial lines capabilities, without a strategy to adapt, driverless cars represent a long-term existential crisis. For those who have strong commercial lines capabilities – knowledge on how to underwrite and price product liability – and who are dynamic in their thinking, the change driverless cars represents is potentially very good.
