Driverless Cars and Insurance

Professor Merkin gave a seminar as part of the Distinguished Speakers Seminar Series on the highly debated topic of driverless (autonomous) cars whereby he presented an overview of their use from an insurance law perspective. He touched upon the rise of autonomous functions within vehicles, the way autonomous vehicles work and will be used, parties liable for accidents involving driverless cars (road authorities, GPS providers, programmers, manufacturers, owners and operators), liability for cyber threats and types of insurance cover available for liabilities and physical losses arising from the use of autonomous vehicles. Professor Merkin’s talk was not only highly attended by students and academics in law and engineering, but also attracted a good number of representatives from legal, insurance and motor industries.