Mitigating risk of connected cars
While connected vehicles are widely expected to make roads safer, but they also present some risks regarding privacy and responsibility. Let's take a look at some of the positives of connected vehicles, and some risks to be mitigated.
Telematics and insurance models
Telematic sensors embedded in a car's operational system can track nearly any variable, from speed and location to the levels of oil and brake fluid. When customers agree to share that data with insurers, coverage can be based transparently on vehicle usage and driver behaviour. This model provides incentive for safer driving and gives drivers direct feedback on how to improve.
Tracking, telematics and crash detection all reduce the likelihood of false claims. These functions can also be used to notify emergency services in case of an accident, ensuring faster and more precise response.
When cars can start to "talk" to each other with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication along with everything else on the road (V2X), automated failsafes can be put in place to help prevent accidents. Warning signals and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) will soon help deter collisions and the running of red lights.
Connected car insurance models:
- User-Based Insurance (UBI)
- Pay As You Drive (PAYD)
- Pay How You Drive (PHYD)
Safer fleets with connected vehicles
Some see a future of connected mobility where private car ownership will drop dramatically. While that day is still some time off, carsharing and pay-per-ride models are becoming increasingly popular, which means fleet ownership is a booming business. Connected vehicles makes it easier to manage those fleets across wide geographical areas.
Telematics can help mitigate the risk of equipment failure and unsafe driving by assuring vehicles are in good working order, and that drivers are following the rules of the road. Systems for Stolen Vehicle Tracking (SVT) or Stolen Vehicle Recovery (SVR) can help deter theft and recover vehicles if stolen, keeping vehicles and the assets inside more secure.
Benefits of connected fleets
- Driver and vehicle tracking
- Reduced maintenance cost
- Increased uptime per vehicle
Cybercrime on the road
With all the positives of connected vehicles come some risks. Hackers could potentially take over connected vehicles, but there is perhaps a bigger threat from less dramatic acts like surveillance and personal data theft.
With new regulations such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies which collect data from connected vehicles must be vigilant in the protection of personal information. Pseudonymisation and anonymisation of data will be crucial to ensuring confidentiality.
How to keep connected cars GDPR compliant?
Some answers have been provided by the Connected Cars Compliance Pack from the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL), a toolkit to ensure that privately owned connected cars comply with French and EU data protection requirements.
Who is responsible for self-driving cars?
When cars start driving themselves, the question emerges of who is ultimately responsible for the car, especially in the case of an accident. Regulators around the world are currently trying to answer that question.
The trend seems to be in favour of placing autonomous car liability on the owner of the car, but that creates grey areas concerning passengers. These questions will need to be resolved quickly in order to get self-driving vehicles in open traffic by the predicted date of 2021.