Insurance and Robots
Have you seen this Nationwide Insurance advertisement/television commercial where the proud parents beam as their tow-headed child/waif shows off the robot he's built in the garage? But then the robot starts shooting laser beams out of its eyes, eventually destroying the family's Ford Taurus.
The advertisement suggests that Nationwide would be there for you, were this to happen to you. But I think this is a seriously misleading advertisement. Is there any realistic possibility that damage caused to your motor vehicle, in the driveway, by a laser-eye-firing robot constructed by a family member, would be covered by your insurance? Not by your car insurance, certainly. This isn't collision or theft. Not by your homeowners' policy, either. This is like if you cut down a tree and it falls on your house. The insurer doesn't insure you against your own stupidity. (Not unless you pay a lot more for it. I'd love to draft one of these policies. "Whereas the party of the second part is a complete dumb-ass . . ." Oh, yeah.)
But, anyway, I smell a class action here. I really do.
posted by Number Three @ 8:57 PM
2 Comments:
Wilson--It all depends on the fine print. The key point is that when a member of your household creates a robot that fires lasers out of its eyes, it's probably foreseeable that damage will result, and that that kind of damage is probably not covered by your insurance (danger of damage created by member of household). If it's someone else (neighbor) doing these things, you're probably covered. Although if I worked for an insurance company, I'd be sure to put an Artificial-Intelligence exclusion in all contracts from now on. "The SkyNet clause."
The really important question here is who is covering the robot. That thing is pure gold.
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