by "davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
Published 12/11/2017 at 14:33
by "davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
Published 12/11/2017 at 14:33
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“Britain’s largest auto insurance company Direct Line is testing out the hypothesis by enticing Tesla owners to turn on their Autopilot with a 5% discount, Reuters reports . The company intends to evaluate whether Autopilot will indeed lower accident rates and thereby justify lower premiums. Premiums will still vary based on the driver’s history, but according to a user in the Tesla Motor Club forum , drivers receive the discount once they tell Direct Line they have Autopilot through the insurer’s Tesla-specific channel.
In March, Root, an Ohio-based insurance startup, became the first insurer to offer discounts to customers using Tesla’s Autopilot. The company, which uses an app to evaluate your safety during a test drive, said it could detect how often a driver used Autosteer, a feature of Autopilot, and lower premiums accordingly, but some critics have been skeptical of whether the app can tell the difference between Autosteer and careful driving. Root now offers the promotion across nine US states .”
“At present the driver is firmly in charge so it’s just like insuring other cars,” Dan Freedman, the company’s head of motor development, told Reuters. But Direct Line will also have to prepare for instances when that is no longer the case, given that people have been prone to rely on Autopilot outside of its recommended uses. Last year, for example, a Tesla driver let it take over for over 20 miles to rush to the hospital during a lethal pulmonary embolism. ”
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"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
12/11/2017 at 14:38, STARS: 0
So, when do they start charging us more for driving ourselves...?
Hopefully we’re still a couple decades out from that...
Link if Kinja’d: https://qz.com/1150513/insurers-are-giving-tesla-owners-discounts-for-turning-on-autopilot/
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
12/11/2017 at 14:45, STARS: 2
Also a good tactic to attract wealthier clients.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
12/11/2017 at 14:48, STARS: 1
Perhaps - I wonder if it extends to other makers’ self-driving feature suites.
"For Sweden" (rallybeetle)
12/11/2017 at 14:50, STARS: 0
Next, a discount for factory quilted leather seats.
"facw" (facw)
12/11/2017 at 14:54, STARS: 0
They shouldn’t charge more for driving yourself. That isn’t getting any more expensive for the insurance company. But a self-driving car may well be cheaper to insure.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
12/11/2017 at 14:55, STARS: 1
I mean, it only makes sense.
1% of 1% off for matching full-grain leather luggage set.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
12/11/2017 at 14:58, STARS: 1
They charge drivers under 25 and drivers of certain cars more because they’re statistically less safe as drivers. If humans become statistically less safe drivers than computers, what’s to stop them from charging us more to drive ourselves?
"facw" (facw)
12/11/2017 at 15:10, STARS: 0
They charge based on the risk. Your risk isn’t increasing, it stays the same (if driverless cars are really safer, it may actually go down simply by virtue of having them on the road.). So assuming a competitive marketplace (which I think is fair for the insurance industry), rates should go down for autonomous cars, and stay roughly the same for everyone else.
The insurers just need to cover the costs of crashes, and their overhead (they’d like to charge more to make more money, but competition limits that). No reason to increase rates on self-drivers if they are causing the same amounts of damage as they were before.
"davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com" (davesaddiction)
12/11/2017 at 15:19, STARS: 0
They charge based on risk, but they can make more money if the overall number of accidents goes down, even if the personal risk I create for them doesn’t change, it may end up on the higher side of the spectrum once half the cars are autonomobiles, so they’ll want to motivate human drivers to buy and use autonomous cars (just like they try to motivate drivers to drive more safely now - https://www.progressive.com/auto/discounts/snapshot/ ).
I hope you’re right as it comes to the competitive marketplace keeping prices where they are (or cheaper), but I don’t put it past them. Their primary objective is corporate profit.
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
12/11/2017 at 15:39, STARS: 1
It ought to. I think some are at the same level as Tesla.