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Next goal: What does our future look like in the age of autonomous vehicles?

When will you be able to purchase comprehensive insurance for your driverless car and what is the chance that all of this is already just around the corner?

On our future in the age of autonomous vehicles

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• Autonomous car

Yaniv Halevi, in cooperation with Bituach Yashir

Monday, 16 August 2021, 15:22

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When will the real autonomous revolution come?

(Photo: ShutterStock)

According to the great promise of most experts in recent years, an article like this, published in the second half of 2021, was already supposed to present an up-to-date picture of the issue of autonomous vehicles on Israeli roads.

Early plans and expectations were that at this point, a driverless car stopping next to us at a traffic light would be a common sight, almost like a driver singing loudly with the music emanating from the rear speakers of his vehicle.

So while autonomous vehicles have not yet reached us in droves, electric cars can already be seen on every street corner, and charging stations also seem to be an integral part of more and more car parks and residential and business complexes across the country. And yet, a driver always has. So will the dream remain just a theory?

The answer is - absolutely not. In fact, when it comes to science and technology, reality has completely bridged the gap from vision and in other words, this thing works. At specific points in the United States and Europe - certainly on the campuses of companies like Google or Apple, a car driven entirely by a machine is already a fait accompli. Without going into tedious explanations, it's just said that the idea of ​​a car loaded with sensors and tiny cameras, one that knows how to analyze the road ahead or around, weigh the data at insane speed, and produce the right action - has already proven itself in tens of thousands of hours of driving around the globe.

At the same time, in order to make the autonomous car the next big thing in the global car industry in general and in the Israeli car in particular, there are quite a few regulatory issues that need to be resolved, including those related to car insurance and guilt in the event of a car accident.

How, for example, will the car insurance currently offered - comprehensive, compulsory and third party, be adapted to driving this car and more importantly, who is likely to bear the blame in the event of a road accident in which one was involved?

In the following lines we will try to shed some light on the matter and give you an idea, even the smallest, of what our lives are expected to look like in the autonomous era.

What do you do about the insurance?

(Photo: ShutterStock)

A human factor, a machine and everything in between

In the last two years, every few months the new editions report to us about another autonomous car that was involved in a serious accident, but it is important to know that statistically this is a very small part of the total number of accidents. In fact, this is exactly why the world of technology turned to the idea of ​​autonomy in the first place: in order to neutralize as much as possible the "human factor", the same pair of words responsible for quite a few deaths and injuries in road accidents that occur every year. This factor is mainly manifested in these and other distractions, such as fiddling with the mobile device while driving or alternatively, improper behaviors such as getting behind the wheel after drinking a lot of alcohol or lack of sufficient hours of sleep.

On the face of it, when we allow a computer devoid of emotions, desires and human qualities to work in our place, all these dangers simply dissipate and it is not just about accidents.

An autonomous vehicle can, at least in theory, be much more economical and functional.

Imagine a situation where your autonomous vehicle drives you to work in the morning and instead of sitting for 9-10 hours and accumulating dust in some parking lot, drives itself back home so the rest of the household can use it and then of course, also picks you up again at the end of the work day.

In such a case, many households that own two or more vehicles will be able to give up at least one of them.

Particularly effective, isn't it?

The future is already here.

Almost (Photo: ShutterStock)

So why are all the cars around us still driven by humans after all?

The short answer to this is that technology alone is not enough, but we of course also have a slightly longer one for you. It is true that a car that is supposed to be accident-proof (as much as possible) is the big dream of all insurance companies in the world, but that is only if they succeed in crossing the bustling junction, full of local traffic regulations, traffic laws and insurance liability.

Think about it: In the existing format of car insurance, the price of the policy is of course also determined by the parameters of the vehicle itself, such as value, level of protection and safety systems, but also by weighting the driver, such as age, driving experience and accident history. Try and assess as much as possible what the chances are that the insured will be involved in an event that will require insurance intervention.

And if we are dealing with the issue of insurance, here we come to another problem - who should be blamed in the event of an accident involving an autonomous vehicle, which is supposed to be free of errors, and a regular vehicle?

And what about an accident between two autonomous cars?

And in general, if there are car manufacturers who know how to produce a car that does not collide with anything, maybe they are the ones who should compensate the driver in case of an accident and not the local insurance company?

This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the insurance issue.

On the other hand, if the automotive world nevertheless goes (i.e., travels) in the autonomous direction, it is likely that insurance companies will do anything to not be left behind and miss the revolution, which in the end, should also yield them a respectable market share.

More challenges await us (Photo: ShutterStock)

What other challenges exist?

An autonomous car is a kind of robot, whose advantages we have already presented, but also challenges are not lacking. Robots - even those with highly advanced artificial intelligence, end up working according to electronic commands. Imagine for example an autonomous vehicle that detects a situation of collision with another vehicle on the road and to deviate from it, turns autonomously to the sidewalk on the side and hits pedestrians. Or what happens when a child notices an autonomous car on the side of the road, concludes to Tomo that it is parked and gets off the road at the exact second the car will also start driving? And what about the hackers? Those "crackers" who try and sometimes even succeed in infiltrating computer systems and producing chaos or enormous damage. If your car is a computer-headed robot, it may be possible to break into it and navigate it. Pretty sure we've seen something like this before in some horror thriller before.

In conclusion, although autonomous cars are already used in different parts of the world, we will probably wait a while longer for them to be used massively as well.

The era of private ownership of an autonomous car is not quite here yet, but it is likely to come in a few years.

Until then, drive carefully and keep up to date.

* The article was written in collaboration with Direct Insurance

Click here for a quote for comprehensive car insurance at an excellent price >>

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