In May 2012, consulting firm Celent foreshadowed autonomous cars impacting roads by publishing the article "A Scenario: The End of Auto Insurance: What Happens When There Are (Almost) No Accidents?"
That writing on the wall of a drop-off in business due to less collisions has one car insurance company — Allstate — extremely concerned.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Allstate isn't only concerned about losing business due to less accidents, but also due to the fact that the growth of self-driving cars — and connected cars overall — will make more vehicles susceptible to hacking.
Why would Allstate be particularly concerned with the latter? Well, the insurance company invests in driver-monitoring technologies called telematics, and its investment could take a big hit if connected vehicles are regularly hacked.
"Telematics devices used have been identified as a potential means for an unauthorized person to connect with a vehicle's computer system resulting in theft or damage, which could affect our ability to successfully use these technologies," Allstate said as part of its 2015 annual report released Friday, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. "Other potential technological changes, such as driverless cars or technologies that facilitate ride or home sharing, could disrupt the demand for our products from current customers, create coverage issues or impact the frequency or severity of losses, and we may not be able to respond effectively."
This concern marks an opposite reaction to autonomous vehicle development in comparison to Allstate's letter to shareholders in 2014, when the company said self-driving cars and connected vehicles will spark a "tremendous opportunity" for the insurer.
On Monday, company spokesman Brian Faith told the Tribune that "protecting the privacy of our customers' information is our top priority, and Allstate is confident in the security of our telematics devices," before adding, "We utilize multiple layers of protection to maintain the confidentiality of the data collected and prevent unauthorized access."
While officials working on self-driving vehicles from both Toyota and Mercedes-Benz told Tech Times that they don't think fully autonomous cars will be ready to hit the road in 2020 — as targeted by automakers — their rapid development is enough to seemingly send shivers down Allstate's spine.
It will be intriguing to see how insurance companies remain relevant in their worst-scenario case of a dramatic free-fall of accidents due to a rampant number of proven self-driving cars.
