Driverless cars and drivers

With the connected car industry estimated to grow to nearly $425 billion by 2020, driverless cars are fast becoming a reality. Dan Preston, chief executive at Metromile, has explored what this means for drivers. Preston expects the convenience of autonomous cars to be a strong driver behind their uptake, with Microsoft Google and Apple announcing plans for connected car platforms last year, signalling that the concept of a “dashboard OS” will become the norm. Current technology is aimed at making driving easier, including automatically opening garage doors on arrival and automatically processing payment at parking meters or garages. Preston adds: “The consumer adoption of self-driving cars could bring the most significant change to the automotive industry since its inception.” Volvo and Tesla have both made gains in developing semi-autonomous technology. While drivers are required to keep their hands on the wheel, Tesla’s Autopilot software maintains a safe distance between cars and can change lanes, while Volvo’s latest models are able to assist with steering and braking. Ride-sharing companies have indicated a commitment to adding driverless cars to their fleets. GM recently invested $733 million in Lyft to develop an “autonomous on-demand network”, while Uber has partnered with Carnegie Mellon’s robotics program to develop self-driving cars. However, Preston says the introduction of this technology will need to come with flexible and efficient insurance pricing models, through extracting data from the car. He says that Metromile currently devises insurance plans, through plugging a device into the OBD-II port - the same one a mechanic uses to measure the health of a car - and offering plans primarily based on kilometres driven. In the future, he says these devices may not be needed, as the percentage of cars with embedded telematics is forecast to rise to 80 per cent by 2018.