First movers in autonomous vehicle insurance set to benefit as industry expands

By Henry Gale

June 16 - (The Insurer) - Insurers that were early to provide cover autonomous vehicle (AV) deployments will benefit as the technology becomes more widely adopted, Rebecca Marsden from AV software company Oxa told The Insurer.

"As we begin to commercialise and scale as an industry, those insurers that were able to move fast and innovate several years ago are now going to reap the rewards of ecosystem players like Oxa, whose businesses are growing and therefore insurance needs are growing," said Marsden, Oxa's vice president of commercial finance.

Marsden said Oxa's relationships with insurers that supported its early deployments have continued as its operations expand. "We've moved through R&D and pilot and we're now into scaling commercial commitments," she said.

The firm's technology is behind autonomous shuttle services on U.S. public roads operated by mobility firm Beep and it also supports off-road projects. Among other initiatives, it has worked with DHL on baggage transfer at Heathrow Airport and with BP on monitoring oil refinery operations.

"(Insurance) capacity at the moment is adequate for our needs," Marsden said. She said she was confident that available capacity would increase with the need for coverage, because more widespread AV deployment will produce the data insurers need to get comfortable to underwrite more.

"And we are seeing an increasing number of insurers express appetite in learning more about the space so that they can get ahead of the future demands of this ecosystem," Marsden added.

This week, The Insurer is considering how the prospect of autonomous vehicles could change the motor insurance market. Look out for articles on loss frequency and severity, product innovation and the impact on motor insurers in the coming days.