INSURANCE FUTURE OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE

PRODUCED BY: JACK MITCHELL

Chris Moore, Head of the Apollo ibott 1971 syndicate, is possibly an anomaly within the world of insurance. Few kids dream of growing up into a life of underwriting, but Moore says he knew he wanted to get into insurance since going off to university.

“I studied mathematics at Bath University,” he tells us. “A lot of people talk about falling into insurance or just somehow ending up in insurance; I may be one of those that actually wanted to be in insurance. That's something I'm quite proud of.”

After graduating from university, Moore pursued a career as a broker in London, spending two years at Catlin before joining Apollo a decade ago. It’s no surprise that he has stayed: the company sits at the vanguard of new technologies, creating insurance solutions for emerging businesses that will be household names in a few years’ time.

“I love insurance,” Moore effuses. “We should be advertising the amazing things about the insurance industry and trying to recruit the freshest talent from university.”

One of Apollo ibott 1971’s biggest areas of focus is autonomous vehicles (AVs). Certainly, it has the potential to increase convenience for consumers and unlock new opportunities for mobility in our daily lives. But AV technology also has the potential to reshape the insurance industry, and insurers must hop on board early to ensure they’re fully prepared.

Moore believes that mistrust in autonomous vehicles is often misplaced, especially given most people are happy to fly in a plane or travel on a ferry while it’s in autopilot mode. “We trust autonomy in so many areas of our lives, including aviation and marine, but as soon as you start talking about autonomous vehicles people recoil,” he says.

In part, this is informed by distant memories of sci-fi catastrophe movies. It’s also a result of headline reporting, where a single AV crash will make front-page news but a million safe AV rides will not. “I would absolutely get into an autonomous vehicle,” Moore says. “I might even feel a lot safer in it.”

What is the size of the AV market opportunity?

According to McKinsey, autonomous driving could create revenues of US$300-400bn by 2035. Most new cars already feature some sort of autonomous technology, allowing drivers to maintain a constant speed or helping to switch between lanes, usually on highway or motorway networks. In future, this technology will enable complete automation of vehicles – starting with industrial applications like agricultural vehicles and culminating in a full robotaxi experience that could make inter-city travel more comfortable and affordable – something that Chris Moore believes is the toughest mountain to climb for AV technology, not least because autonomous systems still struggle to predict irrational human behaviour, particularly in a lowspeed, urban setting.

“I think the size of the opportunity is huge, both in the AV industry itself but also in terms of the insurance opportunity that's

Chris Moore

TITLE: HEAD OF APOLLO IBOTT 1971

INDUSTRY: INSURANCE

LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM