Insurance Institute releases report on automated vehicles

As semi-automated and fully-autonomous vehicles make their way to Canadian roads, accountability is something more and more people are beginning to question.

If a driver is not really driving, then who is held at fault in an accident? Over the next 10 years, the insurance industry will be asking itself this question along with many more.

The Insurance Institute’s recently released report, Automated Vehicles: Implications for the Insurance Industry in Canada, assesses the future of automated vehicles in Canada over the next 5-10 years and asks questions just like this.

It’s clear that as technology progresses, it is not the physical capabilities of autonomous vehicles that will be open for debate. Rather, it will be the legislation that goes along with them.

The Insurance Institute of Canada says the report is a “call to action for Canada’s insurance industry to become engaged in discussions with automakers, regulators, and others who will influence the introduction of semi-automated and self-driving vehicles in Canada, and to become a champion for the expected reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries.”

The report looks into how autonomous vehicles will impact road safety, road infrastructure, as well as insurance premiums and policy coverage. It also discusses how autonomous vehicles will lower traffic injuries and fatalities in what the report calls the greatest change in the automotive industry since the introduction of motor vehicles.

You can read more and download the full report here.