The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) released a brief on the relationship between workers’ comp and autonomous vehicles. The brief is called ‘Braking’ New Ground and looks at how features like advanced vehicle safety in these autonomous vehicles might impact workers’ comp.

Almost a third of jobs in this country require some driving, and if autonomous vehicles automate or partially automate any of those jobs that may impact not only employment but associated workers’ comp costs. Driving-related classifications account for a quarter of all workers’ comp payroll and almost half of workers’ comp premium, according to NCCI data.

Motor vehicle accident claim frequency has increased in the past few years, over the last five years more than 40 percent of workers’ comp fatalities involved an accident. Accident claims cost 80 to 100 percent more than the average claim because they typically involve severe injuries.

Until these vehicles maintain a “more prominent market share” NCCI can’t really evaluate the complete impact on claim frequency but they did look at driver assistance systems like automatic emergency braking and lane assist.

According to the Institute for Highway Safety a forward collision warning system together with autobrake could reduce front-to-rear crashes with injuries by 56 percent. Accidents with injuries may decrease by an even greater amount assuming that these autonomous vehicles have even more significant safety systems beyond autobraking and warning.

Decreased awareness might become an issue as drivers become reliant on technology, which could become an issue if there is a system failure, but that effect might be reduced with training on autonomous vehicle protocols.

The safety systems associated with this autonomous technology could benefit the workers’ comp industry by reducing the frequency of claims and associated costs.

NCCI will continue to monitor self-driving vehicles to plan for their impact on the industry.