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In theory, self-driving cars should all perform equally within the same range and, probably, within the same manufacturer - you'd assume they'd put the same sys
by venus 14y ago
In theory, self-driving cars should all perform equally within the same range and, probably, within the same manufacturer - you'd assume they'd put the same system into each car, and keep it updated to their latest best effort. In fact, this principle should perhaps be enshrined in law.
Therefore, individual owners do not need to be taken into account. Simply calculate the average cost of an accident and multiply it by the likelihood of that maker's system causing a crash, and send the owners a bill each year.
It doesn't even really need to be determined who "caused" the crash in each specific instance. It should be plainly obvious, statistically, which self-driving systems are more likely to be involved in accidents - premiums would be weighted to reflect that, and this would encourage a virtuous cycle of improvement incentivisation.
- ed209 14y agoBut some people will be on the road more often than others, so the likelihood of an incident will be different. I think it would be much better to add a premium onto the fuel the car uses and all claims would go to a central organisation. Self driving cars should level out risk we currently have in different driving demographics i.e. a teenager in car is as likely to crash as someone who has been on the road for 20 years. So it's not like you'd be paying more "liability coverage" than you should.
- venus 14y agoAh yes that is a good point. Fuel use would be a reasonable start as a proxy for kilometers driven, but why not just go the whole way and measure the actual kilometers? I agree about the central organisation. I don't believe private insurance companies add much value and with the removal of personal driver fault they add no value at all. There is no reason it can't be managed via a not-for-profit, competent central organisation similar to any other aspect of registration.
- ed209 14y agothe reason I prefer measuring energy use rather than distance travelled is that it also taxes less efficient cars. safe + efficient is the goal for transport in my view!
- qwertzlcoatl 14y agoIn that case whats the incentive on a manufacturer to build driver less cars at all? They sell plenty of cars right now but with none of the increased risk in liability.