Originally Posted by
WingNut60
Insurance is all about risk, not perceptions.
And risk is about probability and consequence.
While the consequences (cost) of loss of a single pilot aircraft may increase sharply, at least in the short term, provided the probability does not increase then there is little that I can see to support sky-rocketing insurance rates.
If experience showed that, with time, the overall risk was to decline then, in a perfect world, the insurance rates should reduce also.
Though I wouldn't bank on that happening.
If the probability was to increase then they'd have more to worry about than just paying their insurance premiums.
Even if the actual risk isn't that much greater, there is little history to support that. Less history means higher risk from the unknown.
But that concept not withstanding, at least when talking about the the U.S. legal system there is another factor. With a fully automated system I suspect the number of people and companies that can be sued to be much greater as well as what they can be sued for. Just ask Uber's legal department about that one. They have probably dealt with hundreds of fatalities caused by their human drivers, but on their first computer driver fatality the settlement happened so quickly there's little doubt it dwarfed all before it.