Whether you like it or not, driverless cars will be here before you know it, but there has been a lot of worry in the news about potential hacking. Adding more technology will certain make life more convenient but as a result it means our wheels will be at a higher risk of being hacked.
Hack to the Future
With that in mind, road safety charity IAM Roadsmart recently carried out a survey on almost 1,200 drivers to get their views on insuring driverless cars. The results will be used to guide the charity’s answer to the Centre for Connected & Autonomous Vehicles’ consultation, Pathway to Driverless Cars. 46% of those asked stated it was good or very good idea for future insurers to include cover driverless cars and 74% stated insurers should provide protection from hacking.
However, 68% disagreed that cover for driverless cars should incur an additional cost whilst 23% agreed with the bump up in price. Personally if driverless cars are as safe as they’re made out to be, an increased insurance premium simply doesn’t make sense. If anything premiums should go down, surely? Only 6% strongly stated that a car should be allowed to park itself with no-one inside and 69% stated they were strongly against it.
Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research, said: “In our view it is logical that hacking electronic systems in autonomous vehicles is treated the same way as a traditionally stolen vehicle, with the insurer bearing the cost. This will be an important way of developing consumer confidence around one element of the plethora of questions driverless cars pose.”
