
Think your car insurance is too high? Self-driving cars could make you pay less
China’s Changan Automobile will provide insurance for owners of self-parking cars
Your car insurance exists to protect you from having to pay up after an accident. But what if one day human drivers are no longer behind the wheel -- would you need to worry about premiums at all?
The answer could come sooner than you think. It’s true that the driverless cars we’ve dreamed about for decades still have a long way to go. Yet today automakers have already incorporated at least some forms of autonomy into cars.
Take self-parking, for instance. The technology, adopted by the likes of BMW and Tesla, helps drivers breeze into parallel parking spots by taking over the steering wheel.
Despite the convenience, though, it seems like auto parking still isn’t widely used. One reason, according to China’s Changan Automobile, is because drivers don’t trust the computer enough to do the job for them. What happens if there’s a mishap? Am I responsible for what’s out of my control?

For now, human drivers are still responsible for the most part of their journey: Even when autonomous features are enabled, drivers are expected to keep their hands on the wheel at all times. But when fully self-driving cars finally start cruising down Main Street, which many experts agree won’t happen in the near future, the responsibility is going to shift immensely.
Instead of insuring drivers against liabilities, car manufacturers and software developers will become risk-bearers. As Accenture pointed out, accidents could be caused by hardware failures, hacking, bugs and even issues with public infrastructure like road sensors and signals.
But there’s a silver lining for the industry: The AAA survey found that drivers who’ve used partial autonomous features like self-parking and adaptive cruise control are far more likely to trust these technologies.
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