Q&A talks about the impact new automobile technology will have on driver safety and commercial/motor vehicle insurance with Chris Hayes, second vice president, risk control transportation services at Travelers.
Q: Travelers recently hosted its second annual Auto Safety Symposium. What was the general thrust of the symposium?
A: At this year’s Auto Safety Symposium, risk management professionals and various leaders from across the transportation industry discussed emerging technologies and how they will affect the future of transportation and insurance. People who work in fleet risk management and auto insurance hear every day that vehicle automation is going to change, and possibly eliminate, the risk of auto accidents.
That’s a great view for the long run, but the reality is that it takes time for technology to fundamentally change roadway risks. There are a lot of incremental changes to vehicles and road design that are underway today, and it may be decades before it is fully realized.
Q: An announcement for the symposium says, “The way we think about vehicles and driving may rapidly change in the next five years because of emerging technologies in the auto industry.” What are some emerging technologies we may see in the next five years that could impact auto insurance?
A: Auto safety and technology are rapidly evolving fields. Auto manufacturers have spent decades improving vehicles to make collisions more survivable. Now attention is being turned more and more to reducing the likelihood of collisions altogether. Technologies such as telematics, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, active collision avoidance, and eventually automation have the potential to significantly impact roadway safety. There are numerous cars with active collision avoidance systems like front crash prevention (vehicles that can apply the brakes automatically without driver input) and blind spot warnings and we’d expect them to be more commonplace in the years ahead.
Q: What recent technologies have had the most impact on risk management for auto insurance? Have backup cameras and lane departure warning systems reduced collisions?
A: Backup cameras and alerts can play a role in reducing backing accidents. When it comes to more severe collisions, the active collision avoidance systems that are coming onto the market have potential to reduce impact of high-speed collisions on driver safety. Even in cases where collisions are not entirely avoided, the move to vehicles that can reduce speed and pre-engage seatbelts if a collision is imminent can reduce the severity of injuries.
Q: What other new areas of auto technology will have long-term impacts on driver safety and collision insurance?
A: There is an impression that autonomous vehicles are going to start appearing on the roads around us any day, but it will actually happen in a long series of steps. Once full automation is developed, it will still take decades for enough older vehicles to be turned over for this technology to have a game changing impact on auto safety.
What might be more important now is to understand the steps that will take our vehicles to automation. Vehicle-to-vehicle communications, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications, and driver assist systems are all part of that process.
Q: What were some of the findings from the first symposium? Were any changes brought about from it or are anticipated to be brought about?
A: The first symposium focused on the issues facing commercial truck drivers, and we had a chance to share the findings of our research partners at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute on areas like driver wellness, fatigue and distraction. The common theme throughout was that the driver inside the truck is the key to safety, and the ability of managers in commercial trucking to provide safety leadership and look after the health of their drivers makes all the difference in reducing the risk of accidents.
There’s no doubt that the new technology and safety advancements will play some type of role in the future of the transportation industry. Understanding the impact of technology and staying at the forefront of these changes will help us understand how it will affect driver safety, insurance and quite possibly the way we all drive.
