Bermudian-based insurance giant XL Catlin is to take part in a hi-tech project to run a fleet of driverless cars between London and Oxford in England.

Now it plans to trial six autonomous vehicles around 60 miles between the two cities by 2019.

Richard Jinks, of XL Catlin, the only insurance company taking part in the Driven project, said: “Working on this project gives us the opportunity to work with leading external parties to create a risk profiling tool and insurance pricing mechanism which is truly revolutionary.”

A spokesman for XL Catlin said it had been working with Oxbotica, an award-winning artificial intelligence company based in Oxford, for more than a year as part of a consortium of companies working on the programme.

He added: “XL Catlin sees this project as a significant step for the insurance industry on a global level.

“The current model of car insurance is going to change. The new technologies and the many different component parts necessary to enable autonomous mobility create new challenges and evolving new risks.

“Insurers best placed to provide the relevant cover in the future are those which today insure software companies, vehicle and parts manufacturers as well as cyber-risks.

“It is those who have the knowledge and expertise in respect of product liabilities and errors and omissions insurance and associated risks who will be key to enabling the adoption of these new technologies across many applications, not just cars.”