As insurance agents, we have been closely following the development and testing of self-driving cars. We have asked ourselves, how will this affect our business? According to the most recent information that we have read, results show that they may not be as safe as we all want to believe they will be. Google self-driving cars have crashed 13 times between 9/2014 and 9/2015. The "drivers" of Nissans self-driving cars had to intervene 106 times in 1,485 miles of driving; VW 260 times in 14,945 miles of driving, and Mercedes Benz a whopping 1,051 times in 1,739 miles of driving. Considering that the average American drives around 15,000 miles per year, that sounds like a lot of driver intervention for a self-driving car. Another question we have to ask is who would be responsible if a self-driving car hits you? The average cost of U.S. vehicles is above $32,000, and that's without all of the additional technology that will be needed in a self-driving car!
What about you? Would you feel safe in a self-driving car? And will you even be able to afford one?