# A Research Platform for Autonomous Vehicles Technologies Research in the Insurance Sector
## 1 Introduction  
Autonomous vehicle technologies have received increasing attention in recent years because of their numerous applications and the important economic and social progress that these types of systems represent.  
On one hand, from the social point of view, numerous articles and studies have shown the potential progress represented by these technologies; on the other hand, from the industrial point of view, many companies and research centers have sought to perfect these systems. Numerous projects and demonstrations have been presented that have endeavored to solve the challenges that these technologies are still facing today [1]. The insurance sector is one of the different economic sectors that will be affected by the advance of autonomous driving technologies. In this sense, the lack of standardized models has made it very difficult for insurance companies to identify and foresee the costs associated with this new paradigm. More efficient and safer sensors will lead to the reduction of costs associated with accidents and victims; however, the costs associated with the installation and repair of these sophisticated devices will be considerably increased. Furthermore, the new interaction paradigms and liabilities associated with the amortization of road transport open a new method of interpretation of the driving environment and consequently of accidents that occur on the road. All these questions have given rise to an important legal and ethical debate on autonomous driving--debates which insurance companies have not ignored. Furthermore, the technological debate remains open regarding which of the available technologies are safer, which perception systems are more reliable or which means ofcommunication are more efficient at communicating with other road users. Answers to these and other questions are sought by the new research platform developed by MAPFRE-CESVIMAP, the Institute of Automotive Research INSIA of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems of the University Carlos III of Madrid. The intelligent vehicle of ATLAS (Autonomous Testing Platform for Insurance Research; see Figure 1) has emerged as a research platform for autonomous vehicle technologies, with the aim of testing and proving the advances that have emerged in this regard both from the point of view of high-level control, advanced perception and human factors associated with autonomous driving.  
Several examples of autonomous technologies can be found in the literature, and their industrial development is currently being explored by companies such as Cruise, Otto, Uber, Zoox and Waymo. At the same time, some manufacturers are exploring their own independent proposals; for example, the projects of BMW [2] and Mercedes-Benz Bertha [3]. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first platform that is dedicated to the research of technologies for the insurance sector.  
Autonomous driving will potentially alter one of the main actors in mobility--the insurance sector. The concept of insurance will have to become quite different when based on several new--as yet unknown--indicators. MAPFRE, as a world-wide insurance company, is very focused on new technologies and how these technologies can exert an influence in the future. CESVIMAP, the research center belonging to MAPFRE, has decided to develop its own autonomous platform with LSI-UC3M and INSIA to research how this technology will change the landscape for insurance companies.  
This work is organized as follows: First, Section 2 describes the hardware configuration of the vehicle, detailing each module. Afterward, Section 3 describes the software architecture and some of the most relevant algorithms used. Finally, in Section 4 several use cases are presented and, Section 5 exposes the conclusions and future work.