Insurers given clarity on autonomous cars

Government guidelines put onus on drivers to update software

DRIVERS failing to keep up with software updates in their autonomous vehicle in the future, or asking it to take over driving in inappropriate parts of the journey, will invalidate their insurance under new Government guidelines.

Insurers have been given more guidance on driverless vehicles in the latest Automated and Electric Vehicle Bill, currently being debated in the House of Commons. The Government had previously agreed that insurers would pay out to those injured in driverless car accidents. Cover providers would then begin negotiations with the maker in the background to determine whether the car or driver was to blame.

However, under new plans, owners of autonomous cars would be required to keep on top of the latest software updates and know when it’s safe to engage autonomous driving modes.

The bill states that an insurance policy may exclude or limit the insurer’s liability as a result of a “failure to install safety-critical software updates that the insured person knows, or ought reasonably to know, are safety critical”.

Another section of the bill states that insurers won’t be liable “where the accident that it caused was wholly due to the person’s negligence in allowing the vehicle to begin driving itself when it was not appropriate to do so”.