Tesla Insurance Agent told me to cancel my policy?!?

[BGOwner]

I just got my Tesla less then 2 weeks ago. Switched to Tesla Insurance 1 week ago. Out of 7 days of having Telsa insurance I have only driven 4 days and have a safety score of 52.

Day 1 was great, only drove 3 miles but got a score of 100. I was happy to see I had such a good score. But it has gone downhill from there. Next day I drove 3 miles and had an aggressive turn, assumed it was because I took a legal U-turn too fast and figured ok I will watch out for that in the future.

It has gotten worse from there. I finally had some time over the weekend to go for a short drive. 34 miles actually. I was using Autopilot and AutoSteer (no FSD). My score was 67 and I was getting alerts for every category. Then yesterday, I drove 20 miles with a score of 12. Didn't put on Autopilot or anything, just me driving. I kept having FCW warnings for cars that were in different lanes or a few car lengths ahead of me as well as hard breaking, unsafe following and Aggressive turning. (screenshots attached). I called Tesla insurance and the person said that since I said I was driving safely and had SO many alerts, there may be an issue with my Senors, she pointed me to Service to have it looked at.

My first service appointment is not for 6 weeks. I added the data on my issues with erroneous alerts to my appt. Today, I called Tesla Insurance back to make sure that I dont have issues with my rates until after they can look at the car and fix any issues. The person said, they have no way to dispute Safety scores and if Service finds an issue, they may be able to have my insurance adjusted. He indicated, I may be better off cancelling my Telsa Insurance until the issue is fixed.

I am a very good driver and thought Tesla Insurance would be great for me, with a starting score of 90, I was already saving $450 from what my current Insurance company was going to charge.

Anyone have any advice? Am I doing something wrong with my driving, or settings?

 

[MichaelMuni]

when in auto pilot you should not get dinged for things. try to drive with auto pilot 90% of the time or more.

also read the safety score FAQ so you know exactly how the scores are calculated.

 

[BGOwner]

when in auto pilot you should not get dinged for things. try to drive with auto pilot 90% of the time or more.

also read the safety score FAQ so you know exactly how the scores are calculated.

My really bad day was not on AP at all, I do mostly city driving so AP can be a hassle to turn on and off. I think on the day I got the 12, my navigation was wonky. Images of Cars were blinking in and out. I have a low driving milage so have not driving alot since. FAQ didnt help much but was good info in general. BTW, not sure if it helped, but I set my Forward Collision Alert from Medium to Late.

 

[BGOwner]

Well, drove about 25 miles today and it was 99. Didn’t have the car images flickering as it did when I got that 12. Used Autopilot a lot and some auto steer. I think there was a computer issue that got fixed with reset. I will continue to monitor.

Guess I need to get used to autopilot driving on suburban streets. Not bad if a car in front of you with red light, but having to turn it off for red lights and stop signs when no car can be annoying. I am still very new to the car

 

[MichaelMuni]

My really bad day was not on AP at all, I do mostly city driving so AP can be a hassle to turn on and off. I think on the day I got the 12, my navigation was wonky. Images of Cars were blinking in and out. I have a low driving milage so have not driving alot since. FAQ didnt help much but was good info in general. BTW, not sure if it helped, but I set my Forward Collision Alert from Medium to Late.

the safety score uses Medium no matter what so you will want to set it back to Medium so you at least know when you get dinged, otherwise you will get dinged and wonder why because you didn't see any feedback at the time.

 

[BGOwner]

the safety score uses Medium no matter what so you will want to set it back to Medium so you at least know when you get dinged, otherwise you will get dinged and wonder why because you didn't see any feedback at the time.

I did read that it was using medium as default. Been mean to change it back, good call. After the day and half I had all those alerts, I have not had another forward collision warning since.

I didn’t drive the 2 days between the 2 lines with FCW. And finally today, got my score back up above 70 and still have over half the month to get it closer to 90 again.

Today I drove about 30 miles and with an 89, it was my lowest since that 12.

 

[Resist]

Using a Safety Score to determine your premium is a huge scam by Tesla, the algorithm doesn't factor in aggressive moves that are needed to avoid an accident. Tesla is being very deceptive when they claim many people will be rewarded with lower premiums for safe driving. What a joke!

Tesla also did a bait and switch on everyone by giving lower rates but now are saying they mistakenly gave everyone the employee group discount and are correcting it, my premium goes up next month. How did they not catch this earlier? I'm probably going back to my previous insurance provider. Tesla is starting to turn into a crap company!

 

[BGOwner]

Using a Safety Score to determine your premium is a huge scam by Tesla, the algorithm doesn't factor in aggressive moves that are needed to avoid an accident. Tesla is being very deceptive when they claim many people will be rewarded with lower premiums for safe driving. What a joke!

Tesla also did a bait and switch on everyone by giving lower rates but now are saying they mistakenly gave everyone the employee group discount and are correcting it, my premium goes up next month. How did they not catch this earlier? I'm probably going back to my previous insurance provider. Tesla is starting to turn into a crap company!

I have to wait and see. Got my score up to 89 again. Tomorrow starts month 2. My average without the glitches early on is near 98. As long as this keeps up, I will probably stick. What if I start having problems then I’ll look at switching back to my old policy. If I stay I am saving over $450 a year

 

[Resist]

I have to wait and see. Got my score up to 89 again. Tomorrow starts month 2. My average without the glitches early on is near 98. As long as this keeps up, I will probably stick. What if I start having problems then I’ll look at switching back to my old policy. If I stay I am saving over $450 a year

Hope it works out for you but there are just too many situations where you could get dinged for things that were out of your control. Like if someone stops in front of you unexpectedly and now you've got a hard braking ding. People shouldn't be dinged for normal driving, which they will be using a Safety Score and I doubt Tesla will ease up the algorithm.

 

[BGOwner]

Hope it works out for you but there are just too many situations where you could get dinged for things that were out of your control. Like if someone stops in front of you unexpectedly and now you've got a hard braking ding. People shouldn't be dinged for normal driving, which they will be using a Safety Score and I doubt Tesla will ease up the algorithm.

100% agree. I keep getting aggressive turns when I do a U-Turn. But 1 or 2 hard breaking doesnt lower it too much. I get this sometimes when light turns Yellow at the last minute and I dont run it.

 

[Anothergeek]

I just got my Tesla less then 2 weeks ago. Switched to Tesla Insurance 1 week ago. Out of 7 days of having Telsa insurance I have only driven 4 days and have a safety score of 52.

Day 1 was great, only drove 3 miles but got a score of 100. I was happy to see I had such a good score. But it has gone downhill from there. Next day I drove 3 miles and had an aggressive turn, assumed it was because I took a legal U-turn too fast and figured ok I will watch out for that in the future.

It has gotten worse from there. I finally had some time over the weekend to go for a short drive. 34 miles actually. I was using Autopilot and AutoSteer (no FSD). My score was 67 and I was getting alerts for every category. Then yesterday, I drove 20 miles with a score of 12. Didn't put on Autopilot or anything, just me driving. I kept having FCW warnings for cars that were in different lanes or a few car lengths ahead of me as well as hard breaking, unsafe following and Aggressive turning. (screenshots attached). I called Tesla insurance and the person said that since I said I was driving safely and had SO many alerts, there may be an issue with my Senors, she pointed me to Service to have it looked at.

My first service appointment is not for 6 weeks. I added the data on my issues with erroneous alerts to my appt. Today, I called Tesla Insurance back to make sure that I dont have issues with my rates until after they can look at the car and fix any issues. The person said, they have no way to dispute Safety scores and if Service finds an issue, they may be able to have my insurance adjusted. He indicated, I may be better off cancelling my Telsa Insurance until the issue is fixed.

I am a very good driver and thought Tesla Insurance would be great for me, with a starting score of 90, I was already saving $450 from what my current Insurance company was going to charge.

Anyone have any advice? Am I doing something wrong with my driving, or settings?

I would NEVER tolerate garbage like that from an insurance provider. NO ONE tells me how to drive.

Well, except for my wife, but that’s a different discussion!

Get different insurance. Immediately.

Jesus, it’s like 1984. Big Brother is watching.

 

[Anothergeek]

Hope it works out for you but there are just too many situations where you could get dinged for things that were out of your control. Like if someone stops in front of you unexpectedly and now you've got a hard braking ding. People shouldn't be dinged for normal driving, which they will be using a Safety Score and I doubt Tesla will ease up the algorithm.

Completely ageee.

The whole thing is nonsense. I wouldn’t insure my 3 with them under any circumstance.

 

[Silicon Desert]

BTW, not sure if it helped, but I set my Forward Collision Alert from Medium to Late.

Sounds like you are not understanding how the FCE alert works. The "SCORE" always uses the medium setting regardless of the setting you use. So by setting to "late" you can get dinged for FCWs by the car without you knowing it because YOU may not get an alert. When I had a score months ago, I would set it "early" so I would know if I am getting close to a situation where a FCW might be recorded. I am not saying this based on my experience. I learned this from a programmer that works on the software out here.

Aside from that, it does sound a bit suspicious that there might be some sort of calibration or other issue as to why you are getting what you think are false dings. It will be interesting to hear what the SC thinks is going on.

 

[cbdream99]

If it is not the huge saving then I wouldn’t subject myself to this safety score jail. The only way to keep the score high and premium low is to use AP 100% of the time including city. If I drive normally not heavy footed and aggressive in any sense, then the savings will not be worth it and if I drive aggressively then I will actually paying more. There is safety score simulation for you to check the premium. I do think you need to check with SC for the sensors though …

 

[Silicon Desert]

If it is not the huge saving then I wouldn’t subject myself to this safety score jail. The only way to keep the score high and premium low is to use AP 100% of the time including city. If I drive normally not heavy footed and aggressive in any sense, then the savings will not be worth it and if I drive aggressively then I will actually paying more.

Yea, and my wife (been dealing with insurance claims for over 30 years) has an additional reason.... Tesla doesn't yet have enough history and ratings for how well they handle claims, speed, payout, cost, etc. Yea they have been doing this awhile but compared to other companies with long histories, Tesla is too new at this.

 

[BGOwner]

Sounds like you are not understanding how the FCE alert works. The "SCORE" always uses the medium setting regardless of the setting you use. So by setting to "late" you can get dinged for FCWs by the car without you knowing it because YOU may not get an alert. When I had a score months ago, I would set it "early" so I would know if I am getting close to a situation where a FCW might be recorded. I am not saying this based on my experience. I learned this from a programmer that works on the software out here.

Aside from that, it does sound a bit suspicious that there might be some sort of calibration or other issue as to why you are getting what you think are false dings. It will be interesting to hear what the SC thinks is going on.

Learned a lot more with 2 months of Tesla Insurance and the car itself. Finally got my car in the shop 2 weeks ago and they did check the Senors but had not had an issue for about 6 weeks. (actually had my first FCE, since my big issues, on the way home from Telsa service center after check. I also did not have much milage on my car when issues occurred, so score was much worse overall as car only had under 200 miles. Overall, probems seemed to go away and my first renewal using my score was at a 89 and the following much a 95.

What I think annoyed me most was that the Tesla Insurance guy told me I should just cancel until issues were resolved as they couldn't do anything with my issue.

 

[Resist]

I would NEVER tolerate garbage like that from an insurance provider. NO ONE tells me how to drive.

Well, except for my wife, but that’s a different discussion!

Get different insurance. Immediately.

Jesus, it’s like 1984. Big Brother is watching.

Okay, lol. You do know the DMV and the law tells you how to drive, plus driving is a privilege, not a right. The goal of using a safety score to adjust rates was to reward good drivers. The problem is the algorithm Tesla uses, which will end up costing most drivers with increased rates.

 

[Watts_Up]

Okay, lol. You do know the DMV and the law tells you how to drive, plus driving is a privilege, not a right. The goal of using a safety score to adjust rates was to reward good drivers. The problem is the algorithm Tesla uses, which will end up costing most drivers with increased rates.

This safety score is completely absurd, Someone cut me off and I got a bad score.
I have a video recording of it but there no possibility to contact Tesla to change your score.

 

[Resist]

This safety score is completely absurd, Someone cut me off and I got a bad score.
I have a video recording of it but there no possibility to contact Tesla to change your score.

Exactly why Tesla's algorithm needs to be fixed. People won't be able to relax and just drive their Tesla in a normal manner. We will see rates go up because of the Safety Score. This is just another thing Elon is wrong about.

 

[cbdream99]

Exactly why Tesla's algorithm needs to be fixed. People won't be able to relax and just drive their Tesla in a normal manner. We will see rates go up because of the Safety Score. This is just another thing Elon is wrong about.

The whole SS is just dumb. If AP is evaluated under SS, it will get a very low score. It encourages unsafe driving in certain situations to avoid points deduction, at the end it just encourages driver to use AP whenever possible to get a high score, which add another whole new level of attentions and anxieties, may be the whole thing is a scam to force people to use AP more. Customer services of Tesla across all products are the new the nada motto.