Thought on Auto Insurance

[PRSIST]

I was just reading an article on Teslarati about car insurance for Tesla owners. I love the idea of a company offering less expensive auto insurance for my future Tesla, including Tesla, but am not happy at all that I am being required to pay for Autopilot when I neither want it nor have the funds to purchase it.

Right now I get discounts on my own auto insurance because I have an auto alarm system. My insurance company has never come to my house or requested that I go their office so they can verify that I do in fact have an alarm system on my car. Yet the insurance company quoted in Teslarati's article, Root, expects Tesla owners to use their iPhone App so they can keep track of the drivers. According to the article, "Root shared that it has reached out to Tesla to extract real time Autopilot usage data but has not received a response." This is way too Big Brother for me. This just might force me to purchase a conventional car insurance policy.

What do you think about this?

 

[RichardD]

If you have multi-lines of insurance, car, house, life, etc.. splitting them to get a slightly better car rate may cut your nose off to spite your face.. Your results may vary though..

 

[Brad_NC]

As of now, Root is only in Ohio, so that is pretty limiting on its own. Also, Root only wants to track your driving for 2-3 weeks, then it lets you know if you qualify (or at least, that's what I got from it). Though, let's look at this from a larger perspective... what if other companies use the same concept?

I know that we are all different and all, but I really don't care if my car insurance company tracks me for three weeks... it'll be pretty boring for them since I work from home. I'll keep my driving pretty limited... 3 miles to the beach, 2 miles to 5 different grocery stores and 50 different restaurants. Good luck getting much from me, haha.

Let them have their fun watching my dot for three weeks. Once they're done, my privacy returns.

 

[RichardD]

State Farm has a similar safe driver program, they plug into the ODBC and track acceleration etc.. which would be completely unfair in a Tesla.. we can't help accelerating... ha ha

 

[slipnslider]

Please do not do business with companies that spy on you if you have a choice.

They say privacy is an antiquated concept, but that is only because consumers are allowing it to be so.

 

[S3XY]

You think a company spying on your driving habits is bad? Take a look at this.

 

[ccutrer]

State Farm has a similar safe driver program, they plug into the ODBC and track acceleration etc.. which would be completely unfair in a Tesla.. we can't help accelerating... ha ha

Progressive also has one, but when I signed up with them it said Tesla wasn't compatible. Fine with me. Besides the privacy issues, I think the notion that acceleration habits are an accurate predictor of a "good" driver is malarkey. Most of the terrible drivers I know drive "slow", which mostly means that don't really pay attention to the environment around them.

 

[Trips]

...I love the idea of a company offering less expensive auto insurance for my future Tesla, including Tesla, but am not happy at all that I am being required to pay for Autopilot when I neither want it nor have the funds to purchase it...This is way too Big Brother for me. This just might force me to purchase a conventional car insurance policy.

Autopilot will only be one part of a much larger equation into the costs of insurance. Right now insurance companies don't have enough data to figure out there actual expenses. They are going to error on the side of charging more and not taking the risk. I think it will take a year or more after the Model 3 release to see costs come down.

As for big brother, I hate to break it to you but everything is being tracked. That deposit you paid with your credit card has now caused you to be labeled as a Green, High Tech, Luxury Car Buyer with several other categories to marketing companies. Websites can now even email and mail you by you simply going to their site. You can be in a private window and not logging into a website with no cookies and they still know who you are. On a much more common level Tesla is tracking what you do on their site with Google Analytics. Most of this is good for you and makes your life easier.

 

[Brad_NC]

Let's be honest, your acceleration, nor the speed at which you drive are absolutely indicative of your individual ability to drive safely. However, this does not account for the ability of others to drive safely around you.

Don't drive like an aggressive snake going after prey and we'll all be more safe.