This piece is by Andrew Ballard, product principal, U.K. & Ireland, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, and it looks at the future of ADAS enabled or partially self-driving cars. How can insurers keep pace with advances in auto technology?
The Automated Vehicle Bill is currently making its way through parliament and Transport Secretary Mark Harper has said vehicles “that have full self-driving capabilities” could be rolled out as early as 2026. With just two years to go, how ‘ready’ is the insurance sector for self-driving cars? While self-driving vehicles are unlikely to be a dominant feature on U.K. roads for some time to come, being ready will help ensure that insurance is not a barrier to the benefits in safety and convenience they can offer.
Readiness can begin today by knowing the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in a vehicle. We know the increasing presence and capabilities of ADAS in vehicles is changing the nature of risk in motor insurance. Our analysis shows that ADAS can reduce accident claims by over 30%. ADAS is the stepping stone to higher levels or driver assistance and partial automation with systems already “technically” able to drive and manoeuvre the vehicle.
As levels of vehicle autonomy increase, that risk is going to alter and keep changing. Connectivity in cars will allow over-the-air updates and Feature on Demand services to be activated by drivers that can change the dynamic and safety functions on the car. According to S&P Global Mobility 350 million vehicles on the road globally will have over-the-air update capabilities in 2025.
Knowing that vehicle safety technology is only going in one direction as cars become more connected and safety features become more sophisticated, insurance providers will need to fathom how they can continue to gain access to data on a vehicle’s safety specifications from over-the-air updates in a fully compliant manner.
Consider that overnight, a vehicle could go through a series of software updates that may enhance existing assistance systems or add new ones. Of course, it’s not just updates to the safety features of the vehicle that need to be understood, just as importantly, insurance providers will need to know if that feature has been activated or deactivated by the driver and they will need this information across each and every journey to properly and fairly understand the risk of that driver.
Where self-driving vehicles are concerned, it will also be vital for insurance providers to know and understand what mode a vehicle was in should an accident occur and how the “authorised self-driving entity” actually bears the responsibility of full Autonomous Vehicle (AV) mode, should an accident occur.
Fundamentally, for self-driving vehicles to be insured and operated in the way they are intended, drivers will need to understand the exact capability of the vehicle and to opt in to sharing their data. That means the vehicle will need to be connected; and insurance providers will need detailed knowledge on the technology in the vehicle.
This is why the data enrichment solution LexisNexis® Vehicle Build will evolve from being a static “snap shot” of what was fitted to the vehicle when built, to a more dynamic status at a point in time. This solution gives insurance providers data on the presence and performance of ADAS fitments at the level of Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) today but will be foundational in how the market transitions to underwriting more advanced and complex vehicles – leading to connected and automated vehicles.
To this end, our connected car team at LexisNexis Risk Solutions is working with vehicle manufacturers to establish connections to data sources that will confirm software versions and whether or not the features can be updated over-the-air (OTA).
In the future, the data available may also include real-time connected car data that could confirm the active use of any given ADAS fitment by the driver. This means an insurance provider could know the safety features in a vehicle in real time and whether those features are in use or deactivated. They could also know if a vehicle has autonomous capability, through our established connections to the DVLA registration data.
There is unlikely to be a simple short cut for individual insurance providers to source vehicle safety data from software updates. It needs appropriate technical connectivity and consumers opting into sharing their data but we are already well down the road to finding a solution in the ongoing evolution of LexisNexis Vehicle Build.
In the meantime, it remains vital that the motor insurance market integrates ADAS data enrichment into their quoting processes today to learn more about the impact of car safety technology on their books of business and help ensure they are ready to protect the connected and automated cars of tomorrow.
Be the first to comment