Reply to post: Re: Obviously the solution is....

Re: Obviously the solution is....

Because in a world of mostly automated cars the vast majority of the accidents will be judged the fault of the manual driver (remember the data will be logged to prove this). The cost of insuring the automated car will be lower (as they should be safer due to less driver errror) and many of the current low risk (high profit) drivers will switch to automated cars. Therefore the manual cars will be more complex/specialised for the insurance industry, probably be driven by people who are higher risk takers (they've rejected the safer option), and are more prepared to pay for the privilege (they obviously love driving enough to value it higher).

At first the difference may not be substantial - except due to subsidies from the automated car manufacturers to pursuade people to buy the car, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if they offered to self insure them for free/part of the rental cost. Over time the number of manual drivers will decrease (why pay expensive driving lesson fees) which means the size of the pool decreases meaning higher overheads and more conservative pricing models.