Re: How is the insurance industry taking all this?
Ah, but, you're conflating the AV manufacturers with the insurers.
What you describe is from the insurers' perspective - as long as they take in more than they pay out, they're happy.
But that doesn't cover the AV manufacturers' PR issue of "What do you mean your car isn't safe enough for me not to need insurance?"
If the bridge collapses then I, as the passenger, do not expect to pay out to the family landed on below - I expect the owners/maintainers/builders of the bridge to do that. So, if your AV needs insurance, it means you can't guarantee that it will drive accident free - in which case, remind me again how AVs are safer than human beings.
No, the AV manufacturers need AVs not to need insurance - otherwise it's open to debate whether the vehicles really are safe. Don't blame me, I'm only the messenger - but I live in the U.K., where the Press will be all over you like a rash the second anything goes wrong and advocating for you and your family to be strung up from lampposts and left swinging in the wind.
