Insurance thought..

[jsdugan]

I'm not quite sure how insurance is rated on our 3's, but if Autopilot and Self Driving is safer, then hopefully it would make for cheaper rates.
BUT
In the past, they have determined my insurance rates based off of a VIN number. So, the SR+ comes standard with Autopilot, but you can opt to get rid of it by going with the SR option, or decided to add Self Driving, but it would all be the same VIN number.
Am I overthinking this?

 

[PoitNarf]

There’s nothing coded into the VIN to determine whether or not a car has AP or FSD. Besides both of these options can be purchased post delivery. The only interesting things that can be learned from a VIN are where the car was manufactured, what model it is, what type of drive (single or dual motor) and what year it was produced. There’s nothing that would differentiate my LR RWD from a SR RWD.

 

[OCR1]

I’m pretty sure this was the catalyst for Elon starting his own insurance company. Other insurance companies are not offering discounts for owners who buy AP/FSD. Elon is creating a company that will offer discounts to AP/FSD owners on their insurance policies. As far as when the rest of the industry will adopt this philosophy, who knows. Until other car manufacturers catch up to Tesla and the technology becomes more widespread I would expect insurance companies to be oblivious to it.

 

[Chewy3]

If insurance companies start to take autopilot into account it will likely be surveyed like alarm systems when you apply.

Does your car have front & side air bags?
Does your car have an active alarm system?
Does you car have L4+ autonomous features?

 

[jsdugan]

With Model 3 sedans ranging from $35,000 - $60,000, and performance ranging from 3.2 - 5.6 second 0-60 times, and then if the car has major safety software enabled or not, it must be confusing, and shaking up the insurance industry. It sounds like they may not be putting out much of an effort to figure out how to properly insure these cars.
Hopefully Elon can come out with a good insurance product for Tesla owners.

(During Autonomy day, where he mentioned Tesla would be on the hook for an accident if your personal vehicle was being used as a RoboTaxi was interesting.)

 

[C141medic]

It will definitely be interesting to see what Tesla is going to offer in terms of coverage. I’m currently with Allstate and pay about $1100 yearly for full coverage that includes new car replacement the first three years of ownership.
I read that Tesla will be able to adjust the cost of insurance depending on how you drive. This is similar to other insurance companies where you can choose to connect drive monitoring units to your ICE OBD ports, but obviously with driving a Tesla one won’t need such a device. If they’re competitive with pricing I may switch.

 

[afadeev]

I'm not quite sure how insurance is rated on our 3's, but if Autopilot and Self Driving is safer, then hopefully it would make for cheaper rates.

Maybe.

There is no real independence evidence to substantiate the assertion that Autopilot (AP) makes for safer driving.
I would like to think that it does, on average, but I can tell you way more personal experiences where I had to save myself from Autopilot errors, then it saved me from mine.
For example, read this thread: Don't take your hands off the wheel

The only data point we have that AP is safer than not having it is from Elon's twits.
But he also twitted that TM3's will appreciate in value, and then set the 3-year TM3 lease residual at 45% of the sales price.
Both of the above statements are true, but only one is a hard fact. Which one do you want to believe?

Even if AP made driver safer, on average, you still have to deal with relatively high cost of repairs and extended repair times for Tesla. Many threads on that subject around here.

Net result is that my TM3P is more expensive to insure than other more expensive cars in my garage.
That's a shame.

BUT
In the past, they have determined my insurance rates based off of a VIN number. So, the SR+ comes standard with Autopilot, but you can opt to get rid of it by going with the SR option, or decided to add Self Driving, but it would all be the same VIN number.
Am I overthinking this?

Car's options are not coded in the VIN, only the make and model are.
The rest are optional features that you can disclose to the insurance company (e.g.: car alarm, autolock, stolen vehicle recovery, etc) in the hopes of getting an additional discount.

It sounds like they may not be putting out much of an effort to figure out how to properly insure these cars.

Not likely.
I would bet insurance companies ran the #s, and priced it about right.
Model 3's are not build for ease of repair, and with very few body shops certified to work on them, the labor costs and repair times are both way above average. That costs money.

Hopefully Elon can come out with a good insurance product for Tesla owners.
(During Autonomy day, where he mentioned Tesla would be on the hook for an accident if your personal vehicle was being used as a RoboTaxi was interesting.)

More here:
Warren Buffett Might Be Wrong About Tesla's Insurance Ambitions -- The Motley Fool



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