There are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to operating autonomous trucks. While some things won’t change when. It comes to insurance and regulations, there are still many questions left to be answered, according to a panel discussion at the Technology & Maintenance Council’s spring meeting.
As Trucknews.com’s James Menzies reports, some of the liability for collisions will come down to who owns the trucks.
Clayton Cavell, president of Paul Hanson Partners, said some models will see the OEMs continue to own the trucks, leasing them out to the end user.
“They would maintain liability insurance at the OEM level, and that would make life for people like us [insurers] a whole lot easier,” he said.
The insurance industry today calculates premiums based on drivers’ experience, noted Andrew Roth, director of insurance with Koop Technologies.
“With AVs [autonomous vehicles] removing the driver out of the vehicle the expectation is that the behavior is going to change. That will be a positive thing, but it’s an unknown thing,” he said. “From an underwriting perspective, it’s intense. It requires a lot of communication with the developers themselves.”
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