The Actuarial Society

“Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously, something we should do” ~ Elon Musk      Driving any vehicle safely requires a constant stream of quick accurate decisions from the driver, be it measuring the braking distance needed to stop at a point, gauging the distance from a specific object, or negotiating with traffic. In the absence of a driver in autonomous vehicles, the responsibility of making these critical decisions falls on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) controlling the vehicle. Therefore, it is crucial for the decision-making system to be extremely accurate. A significant role of the decision-making system is calculating probabilities, for example the probability of another vehicle entering the lane occupied by the car, a pedestrian crossing the road, or any other sudden obstruction on the road. Prediction by Models In order to predict the behavior of the surrounding cars, the AI in an autonomous car uses prediction algorithms b...

   Economics is the study of various factors that affect both nations and individuals. Statistics is one of the most important topics that governs modern economic theory and economic models, so much so that it has its own sub branch called ‘Economic Statistics’ or ‘Econometrics’. Econometrics is a subset of applied statistics that concerns itself with the collection, analysis, and processing of economic data. Various theories and principles have been developed by economists based on the deductive logic of production, distribution, trade, demand, price cycles, tax, etc. These theories are only of academic importance unless they are put through an empirical examination. Such theories can be compared to real-life scenarios using statistical analysis. Statistics is widely used by economists to analyze various social and economic phenomena and hence develop appropriate models that help us understand the economy better. It helps derive relationships between variables like price and ...