While the alteration of the no win no fee system implemented in the UK in April 2013 may have had the intention of slowing the rapid growth in the number of spurious personal injury claims in the UK, the fact remains that worldwide, there are still an average of 108,000 deaths each month resulting from traffic accidents.
While dubious claims about personal injuries may grab the headlines, the dangers associated with driving in terms of potential for injury and fatality cannot and should not be ignored.
With the World Health Organisation predicting that up to 150,000 people per month could die in road traffic accidents worldwide by 2020, self-driving cars are being touted as a potential remedy to the emergence of this worrying trend.
The premise
With over 90% of road traffic accidents caused by human error, the premise is that self-driving cars will remove the propensity for the occurrence of accidents derived from poor human judgement.
Sensors on self-driving cars will be able to assess the world around them, including road markings, traffic lights, road layouts, other vehicles and pedestrians - as well as every other conceivable eventuality that may present itself on the road.
Algorithms built into the computer systems of self-driving cars will be able to make deliberate and effective decisions, based on the analysis of more data than a human could possibly hope to comprehend.
The analysis of such data will not only ensure that self driving cars evade potentially hazardous situations, but it will also help to pre-empt such situations from arising in the first place.
With self-driving cars of the future able to navigate themselves around the world’s streets, without any human input, the travel experience will be utterly transformed, with inter-car synchronicity ensuring that traffic jams are a thing of the past.
With such a harmonious on-road environment, the potential for accidents will further be decreased as self-driving cars will be placed under less pressure to make split second decisions.
Just around the corner
While self-driving cars may seem a futuristic concept, much of the technology required to create such an automobile already exists, albeit in disparate and unperfected form.
In 2012, Google’s self-driving car made history by being the first car to be issued with a license for use on public roads in the US state of Nevada.
Able to drive at up to speeds of 75mph unassisted, Google’s self-driving car marks a watershed moment in the development of robotic cars. Google, however, are by no means alone in their plans to develop this, with all of the world’s major automobile manufacturers scrambling to perfect their own self-driving technology.
While experts disagree regarding the exact date that self-driving cars will become a staple of the world’s roads, even the most conservative estimates place the development as no more than a decade away.
Indirect benefits of improved road safety
With inherent improvements in road safety, as a result of the widespread adoption of self-driving cars, the benefits to the average person stretch far beyond the reduction in the likelihood of road traffic accidents occurring.
The decline in road traffic accidents would, hopefully, see a reduction in the number of unscrupulous accident management companies on the market, leaving only reputable operators, such as Co-operative legal services, which should help to drive down the number of fraudulent or exaggerated personal injury claims.
A reduction in the number of manufactured personal injury claims should, therefore, drive down insurance premiums, helping to ensure ‘drivers’ can enjoy a safer on-road experience, while also putting a few extra pounds in their pocket.
