Energy use: The hidden infrastructure and risk behind automated vehicles

Data has a physical footprint

For all the talk of clouds, algorithms and AI, the AV data ecosystem is strikingly physical. Data requires connectivity, data centres, electricity, cooling and resilient infrastructure. Electrification adds demands through charging networks, grid capacity and energy storage. 

Sustainability, therefore, extends beyond replacing an internal combustion vehicle with an electric one. It encompasses the energy consumed by computation and data centres, batteries and infrastructure, and the repairability of increasingly sophisticated vehicles. 

For insurers, repairability is particularly important. Sensors and other expensive technology can turn a modest impact into a substantial repair, with calibration and specialist labour adding further cost.

WATCH: AVs, energy and infrastructure

Pete Allchorne, Partner, DAC Beachcroft CSG Strategic Advisory, Sean McGahan, Partner, DAC Beachcroft and David Marston-Jones, Legal Director, DAC Beachcroft discuss energy and infrastructure and consider charging, grid demand, data centres, sustainability and the physical systems needed to support automated mobility at scale.

AVs depend on roads, communications networks, charging infrastructure, digital services and potentially remote support. The resilience of that wider system, therefore, becomes relevant to safety and insurability.

Sophisticated roadside infrastructure introduces additional risks: technology can fail or be damaged, while greater connectivity creates further vulnerabilities to cyberattack. Remote operation raises questions too. There is a significant difference between remote operators reassuring passengers or helping stranded vehicles reach safe positions and remotely exercising meaningful driving control. Where assistance ends and driving begins could have regulatory, licensing and liability implications.

The insured risk can no longer be understood solely by looking at the vehicle.

“Once you build that level of complexity, things are bound to go wrong.”

Sean McGahan, Partner, DAC Beachcroft CSG