Despite embracing driverless technology, Bucke admits that it is “clearly a threat to traditional models of insurance,” but says that right now the danger is not immediate. “It will be a long, long time before every car on the road is a driverless car; there will be a lengthy period of transition with vehicles of varying autonomy sharing the roads, so there will be a need for accident insurance for some time yet,” he said. “In the future, if there is such a time when all road transport is automated, and if the accident statistics fall to very low levels, then it’s true that the nature of insurance will change,” he conceded, but stressed that accidents are still likely to happen, meaning there will be a continued need for third party insurance – “albeit at a potentially much reduced cost.”