Last Tuesday, California became the third state to legalize driverless cars, a concept automobile under development by Google that could one day revolutionize the way we drive. But the development raises a host of liability questions for insurers.
While noting that these cars are still years away from being produced on an assembly line, Tom Kavanagh, director of the insurance practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers, says it's still interesting to ponder this question today: If there is no driver, then who assumes liability if there is an accident, the owner or the manufacturer?
This, he says, would add a layer of complexity to automobile insurance that does not exist today and it will be up to both the legal system and insurance carriers to figure these questions out.
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