Driverless car insurance protects against hacking

An insurance company is offering insurance for all aspects of driverless cars, such as automated parking and the hacking of connected systems.

Driverless cars are dependent on softwares that pose new concerns for owners, leading to innovations such as antivirus protection to prevent the hacking of connected cars. With these modern softwares, arises new dangers which driverless car users need to cover against that a typical car insurance cover policy may not offer. Adrian Flux is the first insurance company in the UK offering coverage specifically for issues that arise via autonomous systems.

The startup has drawn up a policy that covers a range of scenarios, from physical damage to software issues. For example, the company will cover customers against damage that may occur as a result of assistive parking, as well as issues such as protecting downloaded files and providing firewalls to prevent third-party hacking. Adrian Flux’s driverless policy also includes cover that is provided in all their insurance policies for standard cars, such as in-car entertainment features, navigation systems and replacement of car keys, alarms and locks in the event of stolen keys.

Driverless car insurance claims should be easier to prove than standard motor incidents, as the connected systems often save the vehicle’s data in a cloud storage. What are some other issues around autonomous cars that could need insurance?