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ARTICLE · 18 FEBRUARY 2019

Tech Takes The Wheel: Preparing Canada's Insurance Sector For Autonomous Vehicles

Gowling WLG
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A new report by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), representing Canada's private property and casualty insurers, argues that fully automated vehicles present new risks to the Canadian auto insurance sector and its stakeholders.

CanadaInsurance
Joseph McDonald
Joseph McDonald
Angelica Wilamowicz
Angelica Wilamowicz
Parna Sabet-Stephenson
Parna Sabet-Stephenson
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A new report by the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), representing Canada's private property and casualty insurers, argues that fully automated vehicles – the advent of which could begin as early as 2020 – present new risks to the Canadian auto insurance sector and its stakeholders. To mitigate effectively against these risks, IBC calls for fundamental changes to both provincial insurance laws and federal vehicle safety standards.1

Current auto insurance is premised on the notion that human error is the primary cause of collisions. As humans cede control of the wheel, responsibility effectively shifts from human error to technological malfunction. IBC identifies four different impacts on the auto insurance industry that will accompany this evolution:

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