Will Google Take Over Car Insurance Industry?

Every day a Google self-driven car gets closer to becoming a reality. And auto insurers must lose more and more sleep.

What makes auto insurance necessary is chiefly road accidents and what most accidents happen is human error.

If humans are taken out of the driving equation, would there really be a need for insurance?

Google Cars Could Incoporate Insurance Cover

A sign that these days are not too far off is the tool Google has developed for comparing prices of auto insurers. Google Compare, currently only available to California residents.

This app helps users decide who to buy their policy from. But some believe there is a bigger purpose to this invention.

Xerox innovation officer Valerie Raburn believes the search giant may be positioning itself to displace traditional car insurance providers in the not too distance future, when the driverless car is finally on the road.

She points to the enormous amount of auto insurance data the tool, yet to be officially launched, will operate on. “Could Google turn this revenue-generating learning experience into a more lucrative opportunity to underwrite its own insurance policies and displace traditional carriers- especially once driverless cars become a reality?” she asks. Raburn goes as far as to suggest that Google could find a way of incorporating the cost of insurance into the price of the car.

Driverless Cars Could be a Boon to Policy Holders

While these projections into the future will raise jitters among insurance firms, they will be welcomed by policyholders who will see the cost and complexity of insurance decline dramatically.

Transport companies including car-hire firms will also rejoice at the prospect of lower operational costs. Looking at Raburn’s prediction of the changes the arrival of Google’s landmark innovation could engender, it’s incredible to think that an entire industry could be on the brink of extinction. Yet at the outset the aim was simply to reduce the risk of road accidents.

The Future of the Driverless Car is Upon us – Let’s Face it, we are Always Going Forward

For all these mind-numbing advancements the car could bring, there is still one major bend it has to navigate. What happens when the car causes its first major, or fatal, accident?

Of course those who were against the driverless car from the beginning will find their voice. The folks who have always haboured a distrust of technology, and especially robots, will want to play the I-told-you-so card.

Not everyone is a Google fan. Evidence of which is the myriad of charges the company has had to face from competitors in Europe for both its search engine and mobile OS Android.

Clearly the world won’t just lie down and let technology take over both the auto and automobile insurance industries.

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All info was correct at time of publishing September 1, 2018