{"id":7451,"date":"2015-03-09T13:30:25","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T17:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myparkingsignblog.com\/blog\/?p=7451"},"modified":"2025-02-24T06:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T11:23:44","slug":"self-driving-cars-will-90-fewer-accidents-accidents-insurers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/self-driving-cars-will-90-fewer-accidents-accidents-insurers\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-driving cars: What will 90% fewer accidents accidents do to insurers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human drivers are responsible for the vast majority<\/a> of car accidents. A\u00a0recent McKinsey study<\/a>\u00a0on self-driving cars is bad news for insurance, companies, it’s good news for just about everyone else.\u00a0The research firm\u00a0predicts that autonomous vehicles could eliminate around 90% of all automobile accidents in the U.S., saving thousands of lives and preventing up to $190 billion in healthcare costs and damages yearly.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a>

According to preliminary studies, insurers can expect their profit margins on auto insurance to shrink dramatically once self-driving cars are on the road. Image from Pascal Terjan<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Far from a futuristic fantasy, self-driving cars are almost a reality (and one we\u2019ve reported<\/a> on before). Existing cars already feature some autonomous technology: blind-spot monitoring, lane-departure warnings, and forward-collision warnings, for instance. Some of the predicted changes are promising, too: smaller parking spaces would save up to 6.8 billion square yards in the U.S., while the average commuting time would drop by 50 minutes.\u00a0(Self-driving cars may be able to drop passengers off, then park, eliminating the need for extra room for doors to open.)<\/p>\n

Early adopters\u2019 self-driving cars are going to be sharing the road<\/a> with traditional vehicles within 10 years, with \u201cmass adoption\u201d<\/a> likely by 2040 or so, according to the McKinsey study, \u201cAutonomous Driving \u2014 10 Ways in Which Autonomous Vehicles Could Reshape Our Lives.\u201d \u201cAutonomous vehicles and the path toward them is one of the most shaping trends in the auto industry today,\u201d Hans-Werner Kaas, a McKinsey automotive practice senior partner, told the Journal.<\/p>\n

The insurance industry in particular is gearing up for what AutoBlog calls<\/a> “massive changes,” with possible losses<\/a> of $1,020 per car per year. Autonomous cars will also likely cast more liability on automakers, and less on drivers. As the study points out, insurance companies will likely begin focusing on vehicles’ technical failures, rather than driver risk profiles, as autonomous cars are more widely adapted. Insurance companies may also consider the driving records of particular manufacturers and models, rather than drivers’ driving records, or they may push for no-fault insurance.<\/p>\n

Aside from potential revenue loss, however, is the question shifting liability from a driver\u2019s shoulders to the automaker\u2019s when autonomous vehicles do<\/em>, inevitably, crash. How will car manufacturers program their vehicles to behave in situations where a fatality — or fatalities — are unavoidable? As Patrick Lin writes<\/a> on the ethics of autonomous cars for Wired, \u201cIt\u2019s generally better to harm fewer people than more, to have one person die instead of five. But the car manufacturer creates liability for itself in following that rule, sensible as it may be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, while these are informed projections, they are still projections. \u201cMcKinsey\u2019s view that fully autonomous vehicles will begin to dominate roads by 2030 isn\u2019t a sure bet,\u201d reports the Journal, citing an example that, in 2000, auto execs and research firms forecasted widespread use of hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicles by 2020, \u201cbut some car companies have backed away from that technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Insurance Information Institute notes<\/a> in a February 2015 report, insurance companies will be better equipped to gauge which technologies reduce the cost and frequency of collisions as crash avoidance technology evolves and becomes standard. \u201cThey will also be able to determine whether the accidents that do occur lead to a higher percentage of product liability claims, as claimants blame the manufacturer or suppliers for what went wrong rather than their own behavior. Liability laws might evolve to ensure autonomous vehicle technology advances are not brought to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human drivers are responsible for the vast majority of car accidents. A\u00a0recent McKinsey study\u00a0on self-driving cars is bad news for insurance, companies, it’s good news for just about everyone else.\u00a0The research firm\u00a0predicts that autonomous vehicles could eliminate around 90% of all automobile accidents in the U.S., saving thousands of lives and preventing up to $190 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,577],"tags":[393,702,396,728,711,557],"class_list":["post-7451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-products","category-transportation-2","tag-autonomous-car","tag-autonomous-vehicles","tag-google","tag-insurance","tag-self-driving-cars","tag-traffic-collision"],"yoast_head":"\nSelf-driving cars: What will 90% fewer accidents accidents do to insurers? - MyParkingSign Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent McKinsey study on self-driving cars is bad news for insurance, companies, it\u2019s good news for just about everyone else.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/self-driving-cars-will-90-fewer-accidents-accidents-insurers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Self-driving cars: What will 90% fewer accidents accidents do to insurers? - MyParkingSign Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent McKinsey study on self-driving cars is bad news for insurance, companies, it\u2019s good news for just about everyone else.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/self-driving-cars-will-90-fewer-accidents-accidents-insurers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MyParkingSign Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parkingsigns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-09T17:30:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-24T11:23:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myparkingsign.com/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Google-self-driving-car.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katy B. 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