Spinoff: How would insurance be affected by driver-less cars?

Should be the exact same. You'll be responsible for how the computer works.

Well you would still need UM and because you can't have UM higher than your liability limits, you would need liability coverage up to that point as well.

Are you responsible if your dog bites someone?

You're responsible for your property.

Insurance will be much much cheaper...however, if you want to put your hands on the wheel and "drive", you will have to pay out the nose for the privilege.

frick a driver-less car. The gov and others are pushing this big time in the shadows and not because they think it will make the roads safer. People amaze me how they are so eager to be sheep.

The Government will fight off driver-less cars for awhile due to "safety concerns". After awhile they will have no choice but to buy in. When no one is looking they will write bail-out legislation requiring everyone to purchase insurance. The Bill will have been written by Insurance companies.

Many of the supporters of anti-driverless cars will have been elected on "small government" platforms. Their constituency will not notice and they will be elected again while running on the same platform.

Theoretically, fewer accidents would result in lower costs and lower rates. Owner, likely still responsible, but probably a lot more products liability claims against manufacturers.

Initially rates would go up for people that still drive their own cars as more people would move to driverless cars

those rate hikes would occur so that companies could still cover damages from the accidents that are occurring due to drivers of regular cars

As driverless cars become more and more common, there would be less "normal drivers" to pay into the insurance pool, so the cost of insurance would rise and eventually be so high that it would become cost-prohibitive to have a car that isnt driverless to the point that only the rich would have normal cars and it would be a weekend luxury

There will be a different type of insurance that grows and it would be based almost purely on manufacturer defects and products liability.

I can foresee that people will have to get their cars
"updated" every few months to make sure they are running on the most optimal operating systems and that the mechanics are in shape and if not, you lose your insurance and the car wont even allow you to drive