Lower mileage car insurance news
06/12/2010
High tech vehicles have no drivers
The drivers of four electric vans which completed an 8,000-mile test drive from Italy to China will not be eligible for lower mileage car insurance because not only have they exceeded the usual distance at which pay as you drive insurance is worthwhile but also because they are robots, which are currently uninsurable as "drivers", on lower mileage car insurance polices or otherwise.
With the help of solar-powered laser scanners and video cameras to detect and avoid obstacles in the road, the driverless vehicles were on an experimental trip, sponsored by the European Research Council aimed at improving road safety and testing technology.
Without maps, they successfully avoided obstacles and automatically adjusted speed and direction through sensors and travelled on a wide variety of roads, extremes of weather and challenging traffic conditions.
In fact, a jam in Moscow was one situation which required the intervention of the passengers who rode in the vans ready for such an emergency.
The data collected en route by researchers from the University of Parma in Italy, will be used to further improve monitoring technology for all vehicles and drivers including those who will be looking to travel far shorter distances in their everyday lives and have lower mileage car insurance policies.