Consensus is building among U.S. transportation officials that insurance regulation and enforcement for driverless cars will fall to the states.

Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier thinks the industry has plenty to work out as the prospect of widespread autonomous vehicle adoption grows. Altmaier recounted his near-wreck experience riding inside an autonomous vehicle that steered his thoughts toward the potential for a legal quagmire. After the vehicle's operator switched on the autopilot, the car ran off the interstate and nearly crashed into a ditch. The driver was able to take control of the wheel before an accident occurred and guided it back onto the road.

If the car had crashed, there could be competing claims over responsibility for the wreck. One could argue that it was the fault of the manufacturer for designing a system that caused a crash, or that the driver was at fault for failing to take control and avoid an incident, Altmaier explained.

"My concern is ... the litigation hell that could potentially come up," he said. Regulators and the industry need to think through scenarios like the one he experienced to avoid turning driverless liability into a "payday for trial attorneys," the Florida regulator added.

Altmaier said the rest of his trip went smoothly, with the car even passing a truck at one point in autopilot.

"I'm totally supportive of the development of autonomous vehicles," the commissioner added in an interview with S&P Global Market Intelligence.

While Altmaier wants to see the technology advance to implementation, he hopes it can avoid forming a lawsuit industry like the one that has cropped up in Florida from questionable home water and other damage claims.

With autonomous vehicles on the rise, states will need to look at what it means to shift insurance coverage and regulation from individuals to fleets and consider changes to no-fault accident laws, said Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Julie McPeak. Accident claims will come with different and more detailed data gathered in driverless cars than what insurers and regulators are accustomed to handling, McPeak said during the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America annual meeting.

"It will be a lot more information than we're used to having at the time that liability is being determined than what we have now," she said.