An Apple Car could help determine who’s at fault in case of an accident

Let the Apple Car rumors roll on. Apple has been granted a patent (number 11,386,501) for “accident fault determination for autonomous vehicles.” It involves systems and methods for determining risk, pricing, and offering vehicle insurance policies, specifically vehicle insurance policies where vehicle operation is partially or fully automated. 

About the patent

Typically, a customer purchases a vehicle insurance policy for a policy rate having a specified term. In exchange for payments from the insured customer, the insurer pays for damages to the insured which are caused by covered perils, acts, or events as specified by the language of the insurance policy. Premiums may be typically determined based upon a selected level of insurance coverage, location of vehicle operation, vehicle model, and characteristics or demographics of the vehicle operator. 

The characteristics of a vehicle operator that affect premiums may include age, years operating vehicles of the same class, prior incidents involving vehicle operation, and losses reported by the vehicle operator to the insurer or a previous insurer. However, Apple notes that past and current premium determination methods don’t, account for use of autonomous vehicle operating features. Apple wants to alleviate this and other drawbacks associated with conventional techniques. 

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Methods and systems for determining fault for an accident involving a vehicle having one or more autonomous and/or semi-autonomous operation features are provided. According to certain aspects, performance data indicative of the performance of the features may be used to determine fault for a vehicle accident, such as a collision, by allocating fault for the accident between a vehicle operator, the autonomous operation features, or a third party. 

“The allocation of fault may be used to determine an adjustment to an insurance policy and/or adjust coverage levels for an insurance policy. The allocation of fault may further be used to adjust risk levels or profiles associated with the autonomous or semi-autonomous operation features, which may be applied to other vehicles having the same or similar features.”

When might we see an Apple Car?

On. Nov. 18, 2021, Bloomberg reported that Apple is accelerating development on its “Apple Car.” The article says the electric vehicle will be self-driving and could roll out in 2025. 

What’s more, in a note to clients — as noted by AppleInsider — investment bank Wedbush says Apple is likely to announce a strategic electric vehicle partnership in 2022 to lay the groundwork for an “Apple Car” release in 2025.