One of the key challenges for the future of automated driving will be determining where liability rests in the event of an accident with an automated car.
A crucial part of making sure claims are settled fairly will be to understand who was in control of the vehicle at the time – the driver or the car?
According to Peter Shaw, Chief Executive at Thatcham Research, “Future legislation needs to protect the consumer so that in the event of an accident, responsibility and who pays can be quickly determined.Was it driver error or a failure of the automated driving system?
“This can only happen if their insurer has access to key data about the crash. We would like to see car manufacturers and legislators working together with the insurance industry to develop a framework to make this happen.”
British insurers are leading efforts to have a standard set of data agreed at an international level which would be easily accessible in the event of an accident involving a highly automated vehicle. This would include an indication of whether the vehicle was operating autonomously or not, and what technology was in use.
It is backing systems which record 30 seconds before an incident and continue for 15 seconds after.