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Regulation of Autonomous Vehicles

A major issue to be addressed as autonomous vehicles come onto the market is who will regulate them. Traditionally, vehicle safety has been within the purview of federal governments, but states have regulated traffic laws. Some believe that increased uniformity will be required when cars no longer have human drivers; a “patchwork quilt” will be unworkable, they believe. The...

Insurers Preparing for a World of Autonomous Vehicles

When autonomous vehicles become ubiquitous, what will be the need for car insurance? That is the question auto insurers are beginning to face as autonomous vehicle technology promises safer roads and fewer accidents. At least one insurer, State Farm, is participating in research on driverless car equipment through collaboration with automakers and suppliers at the University of...

Cybersecurity Best Practices in the Auto Industry

The Automotive Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Auto-ISAC) has released cybersecurity best practices to protect against risks in the auto industry. Auto-ISAC identified seven functions that cover the various ways in which cybersecurity threats affect the “motor vehicle ecosystem”: governance, risk assessment and management, security by design, threat detection and protection,...

Price Optimization: Courts Put Regulators in the Driver’s Seat

Earlier this year, courts in California addressed class actions brought by customers claiming to be harmed by their auto insurers’ use of price optimization and big data in setting auto insurance rates. In both cases, the court stayed the class action and deferred to the regulator under the primary jurisdiction doctrine. Because analysis of the insurer’s use of price optimization in...

Cybersecurity and Allocation of Liability Are Top Concerns Among Risk Managers

A recent survey conducted by Munich Re found that, where autonomous vehicles are involved, the top concern for corporate risk managers is cybersecurity.  More than half of the corporate risk managers surveyed (55%) named cybersecurity, which included potential hacks into a vehicle’s data system and the failure of “smart road infrastructure,” as their number one concern. Mike Scrudato,...

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