The automotive industry needs more data on driverless car accidents in order to determine who is liable for them, according to a Direct Line Group boss.
As the issue gains further prominence with the rising number of driverless car accident recently, it is an issue faced by many insurers and brokers as driverless cars become more and more popular.
Director of Motor Development at Direct Line Group, Dan Freedman, spoke at a panel session where he told delegates that insurers will play a key role in finding out who was at fault, as well as the manufacturers.
He said that insurers will have a role to play in determining whether it is the car or the individual who is at fault.
Freedman commented: In order to do that we are going to need to have either access to data of the vehicle to establish who was driving, a robot or an individual.
Or we are going to need to have relationships with the car manufacturers that allow us to either share the risk or collect that data.
Meanwhile, AXA Insurance Technical Director, David Williams, also spoke to the delegates, noting that a natural move toward products liability is taking place, although he also believed that it is too simplistic for people to say if it would be picked up by the motor manufacturer.
Williams continued: We need to remember that we’ve got road traffic accident statuary for one reason and that’s to protect road users.
At the very least as liability moves around [insurers] need to make sure that the public are afforded protection from the ‘right to manage’ insurance regardless of what particular product we attach them to.
However, Freedman also made not of another big threat â that of cybercrime, as he noted that this was an issue manufacturers and insurers are still looking at in terms of policy development and the construction of an autonomous car.
