‘ As dash cams and driver monitoring systems like Nauto’s become less expensive, insurance companies can use that footage to assess driver behavior and tailor their rates accordingly. But with the advent of the fully self-driving car, who pays for insurance becomes a different question.’

Source: Ars Technica

I just love this idea. Software that analyses user behavior would bring us one step further to autonomous systems that could work to our convenience. It could even collect information on typical mistakes and feed it back to car software manufacturers in order to help improve the accuracy of the software algorithms in self-driving cars.

But if we have software that can analyse user behavior and/or intoxication levels, why can’t we simply deny the user the opportunity to DUI? It could be included in the terms of service that you CAN’T use a vehicle in certain states. Why let a man decide when you can leave it to a computer who can’t fail? Sure, there would be some outrage about “my car wouldn’t let me drive” articles but imagine the other version, “my car let me drive even when it knew I was unwell, and I killed three people”.
The idea of tailoring insurance conditions and linking them to specific drivers has already been addressed by sci-fi writers. I can’t help but mention that the topic was recently touched upon by the excellent Hungarian sci-fi writer Toochee in his novella “A Bad Day”, which is the last chapter of my recently published book.