MASTER THREAD: Tesla Insurance Services in California

[MrTeff]

I am not an expert but I think the CHP meant it's too late for them to write up a report at the accident scene but you should file one at CHP office instead.

It's California law that you must file a police report within 10 days if there's any:
fatality
$1,000 damage
injuries

California law requires you to report an accident to the DMV using form SR-1.
Filing a report with the police or CHP is not a substitute for this requirement.
(It might be possible that your insurance company will do it for you, but you should not assume that it will.)

 

[MrTeff]

In California, the cops or CHP won't even show up to an accident anymore unless there is an injury...

California law requires you to report an accident to the DMV using form SR-1.
Filing a report with the police or CHP is not a substitute for this requirement.
(It might be possible that your insurance company will do it for you, but you should not assume that it will.)

 

[Tam]

California law requires you to report an accident to the DMV using form SR-1.
Filing a report with the police or CHP is not a substitute for this requirement.
(It might be possible that your insurance company will do it for you, but you should not assume that it will.)

I see. There's a difference in a police report and DMV SR-1. Sounds like it's ok to go straight into filling out DMV SR-1 and skip the police.

 

[Ken43]

BTW on TeslaCam while driving and you see something or have something happen, give it two minutes past the event and depress the Camera icon solidly and it will save the prior ten minutes of live footage and place it into the SavedClips folder that Sentry also uses to store video. I mention waiting two minutes because if you press right after seeing something it might still be in the same one-minute write cycle and cause that portion to be lost. So two minutes should be a safe buffer.

Sorry to hear of your accident, Mark. What SMAlset said can't be stressed enough. Wait at least 2 minutes after the event before depressing the Dashcam icon in order to save the footage. I had an accident last year and pressed the button immediately (thought I was doing a good thing) , and this caused the actual collision file to be lost/corrupted. I did report this bug to Tesla. Fortunately in my case i didn't need the footage to prove the other guy was 100% at fault.

 

[DougUnplugged]

....
9/13/2019
I was hoping I could never use it, but unfortunately, yesterday (9/13/2019) a motorcycle hit me on 405 HWY and ran away when I was just driving on the carpool.

So I called Telsa Insurance, the phone number provided in the insurance card after I off the HWY. A female picked my phone, collected my information, told me an adjuster would contact me in 1 or 2 business days; then she said me they are 3rd party company, not Tesla itself. (Wait, what!?, okay... that's my first shock)

After that, I also called 911 ....

I don't know if you were using Autopilot, but carpool placement with Autopilot has been one of my complaints. Because Autopilot centers Tesla in the lane, it doesn't allow as much room for motorcyclists who are splitting the lane. I wish that Autopilot could recognize that you are driving in the #1 lane and keep further to the left.

And a suggestion; don't call your insurance company before you call 911. Your insurance company can surely wait.

I thought everyone knew Tesla didn't make their own insurance company. Just like how Costco insurance isn't really a Costco company.

Even Costco's Ameriprise isn't insured by Ameriprise. It is IDS Casualty Insurance.

 

[Matthew Hill]

I must admit that the motorcycle hit-and-run thing has me a little bit perplexed. In my experience (as both a motorcycle operator and a driver of cars), an "interaction" between a motorcycle and a vehicle as large and heavy as a Tesla rarely results in a motorcycle or rider that is in operable condition.

 

[glgador007]

It could be the very first report with Tesla's own Insurance experience. (I could be wrong, but I googled a lot, haven't found anything similar online, feel free to beat me for the first experience)


================You can just read this instead of my whole story====================
A short version and something I want to highlight here:
1. My case, Tesla Insurance is cheaper than GEICO
2. No Tesla employees contacted me, at least for my case so far
3. You will still use old fashion Enterprise for your rental service, not Tesla
4. Based on my experience so far, I would say
Tesla Insurance is cheaper because they are using 3rd party insurance companies to provide the service
5. TBD

=====================Something for Tesla, or Elon Musk==============================
1. You should train your vendor / third-party guys better, at least ask them to declare they are under Tesla's umbrella when facing customers
2. As a customer, I DON'T expect to hear any other companies' name, I do not care your tricks as long as I do not know, play better please
3. For my case, your third-party guys are doing well so far
3. TBD

============================================Where My Story Begins===================

Okay, folks, I bought my Tesla Model 3 last year (2018), and was using GEICO starting from my first day, then transferred to Tesla's won Insurance on the very first day they published (Yes I live in SoCal, and yes Tesla Insurance on the very first day was very buggy).

9/13/2019
I was hoping I could never use it, but unfortunately, yesterday (9/13/2019) a motorcycle hit me on 405 HWY and ran away when I was just driving on the carpool.

So I called Telsa Insurance, the phone number provided in the insurance card after I off the HWY. A female picked my phone, collected my information, told me an adjuster would contact me in 1 or 2 business days; then she said me they are 3rd party company, not Tesla itself. (Wait, what!?, okay... that's my first shock)

After that, I also called 911 trying to report the hit&run, as that motorcycle's license plate number is easy to identify from my dash camera. An officer picked up and collected information and then transferred, then they told me it was too late to file a report, asking me to visit CHP to do so. Then they also told me Insurance should be fine without a police report for my case. (Yeah that was what I thought)

9/14/2019
Today, an adjuster called me around 2 pm PDT, reviewed my case, and told me I have to go to the police to fire a case. (Okay....) Lucky it was only around 2pm. So I did so and sent information back to the adjuster. BUT, I recognized her email address was a third-party insurance company named Crawford... NOT TESLA...
Additionally, in her email, she explained I could use a rental service while repairing later, but the current in-network rental provider is Enterprise... NOT TESLA...

TBD.....
I will keep posting with my updates.

Here's what the DMV says about reporting a vehicle accident. Traffic Accident Report SR 1 "In most cases, you will not need a police report to file a claim with your insurer unless there is extensive damage that you'd like to be compensated for, or something unusual happens, such as a crime taking place or the other driver fleeing the scene". I hope you are fine and the hit and run bastard is caught. Good luck and keep us up to date.

 

[derkan]

I've gone through this a few times now in CA. My suggestion is always always insist on a police report. Acquaintance who works at a local PD as an accident investigator told me to say I was injured, if necessary, to ensure the police comes out and spends the 10 minutes to take a report. Apparently in the long term police save time and money by doing the reports upfront instead of being dragged into disputes after the fact, and also, a police report makes the determination of fault between the insurance companies a very different game. Sadly many police departments apparently now try to institute "policies" of NOT coming out to accident sites to take reports UNLESS somebody is injured, but this is just plain wrong.

 

[gocam]

About to take delivery tomorrow of the M3 - have a reasonable State Farm plan in interim for my spouse and I that covers the Volt we are in process of selling to replace with the Tesla. Tesla quote online for me is a lot better, however, and with significantly better coverage so it is interesting. Sounds like that to get a quote with spouse as an additional named insured driver I first need to get the quote online, then purchase the policy, then call tesla insurance manually and give my spouse's info over the phone (? is this right ? License ID, DOB, years of driving etc), at which point they will manually give me a new quote. At that point, if it still stays looking good I keep the program, otherwise I need to immediately cancel it and get a refund for what I originally paid. Is that accurate ?

If so, this is quite mad for anyone that buys a car to share with their spouse, no ? Has anyone here gone through the process above and *NOT* had their rates hike up significantly. My spouse has a longer driving history than I, and neither have us have ever made claims.

 

[MP3Mike]

I don't know if you were using Autopilot, but carpool placement with Autopilot has been one of my complaints. Because Autopilot centers Tesla in the lane, it doesn't allow as much room for motorcyclists who are splitting the lane. I wish that Autopilot could recognize that you are driving in the #1 lane and keep further to the left.

Elon says that that will be better in V10.0:

Elon Musk
@elonmusk

Lane offset should be much better in V10.0

 

[MarcCBR]

I used my Tesla insurance last week. They fixed a chip I got on my windshield the same day. I did not like the person that initially took the call. She gave me the feeling that I was bugging her by calling a bit on the rude side and couldn't answer any questions. The adjuster called me a few hours latter and was very nice and told me to go ahead and make reservations with Safelite and they would reimburse me for the charges since they have not completed their contract with them. Still waiting on the reimbursement check but that should arrive soon.

 

[Dazex]

The exact same thing happened to me on the 405N last week. A motorcycle took off my passenger side mirror and ran. Here's the pic of the guy who did it. Curious if it was the same dude.View attachment 454861

WTH, my sister was driving in the OC freeway a few weeks back and a motorcycle broke off her mirror too and kept riding ahead. She was in shock at what had happened. I am wondering if it’s deliberate at this point given the two similar stories above.

 

[MlTaylor619]

Its makes a pretty bold statement when a car manufacturer is willing to bet on its cars against an insurance industry that has far more data points to work with. It is also a little crazy as a business decision. However, I want to keep this positive, for I see a huge positive upside. Many accidents are at low speeds. If Tesla can succeed at redesigning certain sections of the cars with higher probability of damage in such a way as to allow for user/non technician repair (remove, plugin, and ride), it would vastly undermine repair costs in an industry that is built on an expensive process that needs some intervention.

 

[DanLA]

This was the process for me. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be no adjustment to add your spouse. Please update this thread if you go through with it.

Sounds like that to get a quote with spouse as an additional named insured driver I first need to get the quote online, then purchase the policy, then call tesla insurance manually and give my spouse's info over the phone (? is this right ? License ID, DOB, years of driving etc), at which point they will manually give me a new quote.

 

[Ulmo]

The CHP might not come out to all accidents but it doesn't absolve you from the requirement to file a police report.

All I know about is the requirement to file a DMV report. I had no idea law enforcement was involved at all.

Then again, I've lived in major urban areas every time I've had to research this or take DMV tests, so maybe it's different elsewhere.

Edit:

I see later in the thread other posters finally posted this correct information. I've never heard of any police report requirement in California, only DMV requirement, except where crime is involved.

Thank you for the information. I didn't mentioned TeslaCam because it was working I'm pretty sure but when I off the HWY it's already 1 hour ahead and all record was overwritten by new data (yeah TeslaCam didn't recognize it as an emergency, that guy used his left leg to kick my car on the right front fender and damaged it, guess not enough to trigger Tesla's build-in camera's alarm)

But I have an additional dash camera, and kept the video. That's why I only mentioned "dash camera" but not TeslaCam

Great example of real life situation where an additional 3rd party camera is better than relying on only one built-in feature that we can't fix the rough edges.

 

[Ulmo]

I don’t understand why they legally allow motorcycles to split the lane like that in some states, it’s like threading a needle and we all know what happens to the rider if someone changes lanes at the same time when the driver never sees them.

It's not legal per California Vehicle Code (the last time I researched this; they may have amended it since then), but the illegal law enforcement and illegal governors allow it anyway. The California governors and any CHP supporting them should be thrown in prison for constantly violating law.

 

[devilmountain]

Here is a news story about a motorcyclist smashing mirrors on the highway, he got caught.
Motorcyclist charged after smashing SUV mirror on Highway 24

 

[follow.johnny]

Right on time... Geico raises my premium AGAIN.

View attachment 455515

I'm planning to go with Tesla Insurance after my next bill is paid this week. Tired of all this bait and switch *sugar* with Geico.

Update: Just purchased my policy with Tesla Insurance, great deal and better coverage. Canceled my policy with Geico. I'm hoping my insurance will become cheaper with more owners choosing Tesla Insurance and having all the data for less accidents with owning a Tesla.

 

[KSilver2000]

i have insurance with wawanesa. tesla dd offer a competitve price on coverage-for-coverage basis. however, i stuck with wawanesa because it was $400 less per year than the tesla insurance.

That’s not competitive IMO. $400 diff is significant.

Even Costco's Ameriprise isn't insured by Ameriprise. It is IDS Casualty Insurance.

FWIW, in case anyone wants a data point, my friend with an X got hit by another parent while dropping off child at school. He is having the crappiest experience getting Ameriprise to process the claim and repair his Tesla. They’re really not working for him and he’s having to do practically ALL the legwork. Ameriprise is relatively cheap for a reason IMO.

 

[KSilver2000]

AAA in California is very good. Maybe not cheap but the in general very complete.

I second that to a degree. If you were in an accident and are in need of a repair, they move quickly to process the claim to your satisfaction (since you’re picking the body shop).

But, when it comes to paying you out on a totaled car, regardless of who was at fault, I think AAA is as worse as any other carrier. They will pick and choose the lowest comps they can find across a very wide area to pay you the lowest amount. And it is almost (not 100%) impossible to argue for a higher amount.