The National Transportation Safety Board released its 2013 Most Wanted List,and one of the 10 issues the organization would like to see thetransportation industry to focus on next year is to mandate motorvehicle collision avoidance technology.

According to the NTSB, several technologies have all beenproven to aid drivers when they are faced with unexpectedconditions, particularly when traveling at highway speeds or whenoperating larger commercial vehicles that require greater stoppingdistances.

Some of the technology that falls under the heading of collisionavoidance includes:

• Lane departure warning
• Forward collision warning
• Adaptive cruise control
• Automatic braking
• Electronic stability control
• Adaptive headlights

Insurers have limited influence over car manufacturersinstalling collision avoidance technology in new cars as arequirement, according to Donald Light, director, Americasproperty/casualty practice for Celent.

Individually, or collectively through trade groups, though,Light believes insurers could:

• Create or promise lower premiums for vehicles with specifiedcollision avoidance equipment
• Run advertising/social media campaigns leaning on manufacturersand/or creating greater consumer demand
• Lobby at the federal level for laws and regulations

Michael Costonis, a managing director in Accenture Property andCasualty Insurance Services, believes insurers are looking at areassuch as accident avoidance as they look at ways to change badevents before they can happen.

“My personal view is that [the insurance industry] is going tobecome more proactive in the future as they try to anticipate whatcould happen and try to modify behavior before the claim eventoccurs,” he says. “Proactive loss control is going to become moreof a feature of claims than purely aspirational. If you can modifythe behavior you can prevent the claim and yield a far superiorresult. If [an event] doesn't exist you certainly have a betteranswer. You are going to see that as pay as you drive starts toevolve more toward modifying driver behavior. Loss control behaviorwill become more of the norm than trying to out-execute theproblem.”

Costonis doesn't believe such breakthroughs are that faraway.

“Trying to marry data sources that are popping up, as rapid aswe've seen consumer data coming to the fore, the trend is actuallymore impressive when you look at connected devices,” he says. “Thechallenge is how does the insurance company consume and make use ofthe data. The trend is a few years away, not 10 years. It'sprobably closer than we think.”

The NTSB points out that these technologies are available todayin many vehicles, usually as options that a vehicle owner can add,and some technologies are not even required to meet performancestandards.

The NTSB believes the National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration should establish performance standards where stillneeded and mandate that these technologies be included as standardequipment in cars and commercial motor vehicles alike. Their fulllife-saving and crash-avoidance potential will not be realizeduntil supported by federal rulemaking and related standards,according to the NTSB