Thanks for the informative replies. I didn't realise my 'random musing' was actually "a thing" and was so widespread. From my point of view [based in UK] the l

Thanks for the informative replies. I didn't realise my 'random musing' was actually "a thing" and was so widespread. From my point of view [based in UK] the link to the UK Government's statement on why the deposit scheme was dropped is quite interesting. Most of their objections to retaining the deposit scheme; people not renewing their deposits, people's financial circumstances changing, insufficient size of the deposit. could equally well be applied to the system of insuring through an insurance company. The Government also quotes the possibility of claims running into "many millions". Again, I stand to be corrected but I'm pretty sure my insurance policy has a stated ceiling on 3rd party liability which is in the hundreds of thousands. I'd have thought any claim involving "many millions" would be a the result of an incident of such magnitude that it would go well beyond a standard motor insurance claim, anyway. And, again; a billionaire or multi-millionaire could still hypothetically cover even "claims running into the millions" from their own pocket. So the UK Government reasoning still seems flawed, in those cases. Next topic: Who should pay for the insurance when the cars are self-driving? [But I'm sure we've done that one before, a few times!]