The insurance industry has a $160 billion blind spot: the driverless car.

Car insurers last year hauled in $200 billion of premiums, about a third of all premiums collected by the property-casualty industry. But as much as 80% of the intake could evaporate in coming decades, say some consultants, assuming crucial breakthroughs in driverless technology make driving safer and propel big changes in car ownership.

As the threat approaches, U.S. insurance executives are spending millions and embedding with car companies, testing the technology themselves, and wrestling with whether to lower prices as parts of the autonomous future hit America’s roads.

For the actuaries who set insurance rates, it is a puzzle like no other: How do they prepare for a world of so many fewer auto accidents? In the future, will underwriters be insuring drivers or computer code?

“Change is coming and we need to get ahead of it,” said Allstate Corp. Chief Executive Tom Wilson in an interview. The suburban Chicago insurer is spending millions on research for new products and services that involves more than 200 data scientists and tech experts at a company it founded called Arity.