The data coming out from an independent study of Waymo autonomous vehicles is, frankly, amazing. Swiss Re, one of the largest global insurance firms based out of Zürich, reports that 25.3 million fully autonomous miles drive by Waymo vehicles resulted in a 92% reduction in car crash injuries.
In plain English, Waymo self-driving tech is 12.5x safer than human drivers.
Let’s dig into what that means!
Never trust an automated vehicle you have to buy insurance for. If it’s truly autonomous, then the actual person in the driver seat is irrelevant. There is no need to price risk individually. Any true self driving car should have a lifetime insurance policy included in the purchase price. The manufacturer is the one determining if crashes will occur. The liability should be entirely on them. Any company selling you a “self driving” card that still requires you to buy insurance is selling snake oil.
I agree with you, but it will never happen without legislation forcing it. The insurance companies don’t care who the money comes from (for the most part), so take them out of the equation. The person purchasing the car will (rightfully) feel that they shouldn’t have liability because they’re not driving the car, but the manufacturer/dealer will also (rightfully) feel that they can’t control the environment that the owner subjects the car to, so the liability should be on the purchaser.
Right now, if you don’t maintain your tires, and you lose traction and cause a wreck, you’re at fault. If you don’t maintain your brakes and they fail and you slam into the back of another car, you’re at fault. Repeat ad nauseam for every part of the car.
Unless everything becomes leased (oh god, I can hear the comments about ‘you will own nothing, and you will be happy’ coming) and the manufacturer/dealer can force inspection of the car every x00 miles at the purchaser’s expense, they will happily (and successfully, because they’ll definitely sway the majority of american idiots with their ‘dire warnings’ about giving up ownership of your vehicle) that they shouldn’t be liable because they can’t ensure owners don’t set up a dangerous situation.
I also don’t see them ‘grounding’ a vehicle because a sensor says something is wrong. That is just screaming as the bad PR looms for the companies that would spearhead that thrust.