Using 'Dashcam' to reduce insurance premium?

[M3P_W8]

I have just taken out insurance for my M3P which is due to delivered to my home on June 17th (after over 6 months of waiting!)

I received a quote that I was VERY happy with from Admiral (~£400 fully comp.), so I paid for this yesterday.

On reviewing the documentation today, I notice that I had a 'Dashcam' listed as a modification. I think I had ticked the 'dashcam' box when filling out the forms on Confused.com where I received the quote, knowing that the Model 3 had one.

As I didn't want to leave myself open to any issues should I ever need to claim, I contacted admiral today to point out that the 'dashcam' comes as standard and is not a modification or an optional extra. My premium increased by £11 to have the 'modification' removed. I decided to pay the £11 for peace of mind.

Has anyone else used the dashcam feature to reduce their insurance premium? Would that likely cause an issue if a claim was needed?

 

[MrBadger]

Quite frankly TeslaCam is far from what people would rely on as a dashcam. I think the £11 for peace of mind is a good price to avoid trying to explain why your so called dashcam failed to record the incident, or was sub par in quality making it impossible to make out the necessary important detail.

Its a nice free addition but, imho, its not a dashcam that can be relied on for insurance purposes. But a bonus if it helps.

 

[MrBadger]

Its a nice free addition but, imho, its not a dashcam that can be relied on for insurance purposes. But a bonus if it helps.

And a perfectly timed example. Sentry mode failed to record at time of need

 

[btc1k]

I have just taken out insurance for my M3P which is due to delivered to my home on June 17th (after over 6 months of waiting!)

I received a quote that I was VERY happy with from Admiral (~£400 fully comp.), so I paid for this yesterday.

On reviewing the documentation today, I notice that I had a 'Dashcam' listed as a modification. I think I had ticked the 'dashcam' box when filling out the forms on Confused.com where I received the quote, knowing that the Model 3 had one.

As I didn't want to leave myself open to any issues should I ever need to claim, I contacted admiral today to point out that the 'dashcam' comes as standard and is not a modification or an optional extra. My premium increased by £11 to have the 'modification' removed. I decided to pay the £11 for peace of mind.

Has anyone else used the dashcam feature to reduce their insurance premium? Would that likely cause an issue if a claim was needed?

It's a common T&C that if you have a dashcam declared on insurance for a premium reduction, and then are not able to submit footage post incident, they will charge the premium difference post the event. It doesn't invalidate your insurance.

I'll take the discount with the outside possibility of having to pay the premium difference later.

 

[M3P_W8]

It's a common T&C that if you have a dashcam declared on insurance for a premium reduction, and then are not able to submit footage post incident, they will charge the premium difference post the event. It doesn't invalidate your insurance.

I'll take the discount with the outside possibility of having to pay the premium difference later.

My primary concern was that the dashcam was listed as a 'Modification' when it isn't and I didn't want to leave any scope for the insurance companies to argue 'misrepresentation' to invalidate any potential future claim.

£11 to clear that up was worth it for me, but I guess the risk/reward evaluation may be different for others if their premium hike is more significant.

 

[btc1k]

My primary concern was that the dashcam was listed as a 'Modification' when it isn't and I didn't want to leave any scope for the insurance companies to argue 'misrepresentation' to invalidate any potential future claim.

£11 to clear that up was worth it for me, but I guess the risk/reward evaluation may be different for others if their premium hike is more significant.

Makes sense.

Direct Line list "Tesla Autopilot" as a modification, with a £40 premium reduction for me. Go figure!

 

[Alistairuk]

Churchill also lists "Autopilot" (not FSD) as a modification even though it's standard with the car (if you phone them) which drops the price by a few pounds...

 

[Nick77]

Why is the onboard dash cam not reliable? Surely it just records when you drive anywhere and stops when you turn off, same as any aftermarket dashcam?

 

[HenryT]

Makes sense.

Direct Line list "Tesla Autopilot" as a modification, with a £40 premium reduction for me. Go figure!

I guess it depends who you speak to. When I spoke to DL about autopilot on a M3 they said to me that if it was the 'standard' AP it didn't count. Enhanced or FSD was needed for any discount.

 

[MrBadger]

Why is the onboard dash cam not reliable? Surely it just records when you drive anywhere and stops when you turn off, same as any aftermarket dashcam?

Because its not a dashcam. It was an after thought that Tesla cobbled together because it probably a good use for 4 of the cameras. Unlike a dedicated dashcam, its missing many standard functions that you would expect, image quality is low and it probably wouldn't have had the reliability testing that a dedicated unit would have had.

One example of missing important events is the several seconds gap in recorded footage that occurs once per minute per camera. Another example is point that pressing save often truncates the footage right at the wrong moment in time.

As for just recording whilst driving, theoretically yes, but in practice everything is deleted once it gets to 60 minutes old unless you specifically save the event. And 60 minutes doesn't mean (or at least didn't, may have changed) driving, it means when car is not sleeping. So if you need an event for later use, you need to have physically saved the footage otherwise there is a high chance that it will have been deleted before you can recover anything from it.

Things may have changed a little since this post, but you get the idea.

Dashcam - save recording misses the event?

A couple of times I've wanted to record an event so hit save clip. And on these couple of times, I've missed the all important run up to the event. Coincidence, or when hitting dashcam save event, does it only go back a few (7 seconds below) seconds prior to the event and non gapless recording...

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Nick77]

Because its not a dashcam. It was an after thought that Tesla cobbled together because it probably a good use for 4 of the cameras. Unlike a dedicated dashcam, its missing many standard functions that you would expect, image quality is low and it probably wouldn't have had the reliability testing that a dedicated unit would have had.

One example of missing important events is the several seconds gap in recorded footage that occurs once per minute per camera. Another example is point that pressing save often truncates the footage right at the wrong moment in time.

As for just recording whilst driving, theoretically yes, but in practice everything is deleted once it gets to 60 minutes old unless you specifically save the event. And 60 minutes doesn't mean (or at least didn't, may have changed) driving, it means when car is not sleeping. So if you need an event for later use, you need to have physically saved the footage otherwise there is a high chance that it will have been deleted before you can recover anything from it.

Things may have changed a little since this post, but you get the idea.

Dashcam - save recording misses the event?

A couple of times I've wanted to record an event so hit save clip. And on these couple of times, I've missed the all important run up to the event. Coincidence, or when hitting dashcam save event, does it only go back a few (7 seconds below) seconds prior to the event and non gapless recording...

teslamotorsclub.com

Thanks that's very helpful.

Sounds a pretty pointless inclusion then and marketing it as "dashcam".

 

[btc1k]

I guess it depends who you speak to. When I spoke to DL about autopilot on a M3 they said to me that if it was the 'standard' AP it didn't count. Enhanced or FSD was needed for any discount.

Well, as we know, "AutoPilot" is different to "EAP" and "FSD".

I have "AutoPilot" listed on my policy with a discount.

I don't think DL or any insurance company would give latitude to their call centre staff to have their own interpretation of what it means.

Your insurance terms are what is written on the policy doc - I never believe anything they tell me on the phone!

 

[M3P_W8]

I know from reading the various threads on here that lots of people take advantage of the discount offered when 'Auto Pilot' is added, but having something listed as a 'Modification' to get a discount when it is in fact 'Standard' feels like dodgy ground to me (same for dashcam, which is why I removed it for the sake of £11).

I simply don't have enough faith in insurance companies to not try and use whatever they can to get out of paying out, including 'misrepresentation'!

 

[HenryT]

Well, as we know, "AutoPilot" is different to "EAP" and "FSD".

I have "AutoPilot" listed on my policy with a discount.

I don't think DL or any insurance company would give latitude to their call centre staff to have their own interpretation of what it means.

Your insurance terms are what is written on the policy doc - I never believe anything they tell me on the phone!

You may think that, but practically, it is what happens. The call handler decides to check or uncheck a box on his screen based on what he understands and how he interprets what he has been told. My experience was different to yours only because the call handler responded differently.

(That isn't to say I won't be having another go when/if I renew)

 

[Jason71]

I know from reading the various threads on here that lots of people take advantage of the discount offered when 'Auto Pilot' is added, but having something listed as a 'Modification' to get a discount when it is in fact 'Standard' feels like dodgy ground to me (same for dashcam, which is why I removed it for the sake of £11).

I simply don't have enough faith in insurance companies to not try and use whatever they can to get out of paying out, including 'misrepresentation'!

especially if its Admiral.
If you get a quote for a mod on say money supermarket and it goes to them or one of their sister company's they will automatically take it as fact that you already had the mod done and update your existing policy and charge you without checking. They did it to me even though the quote for the mod in question (chipping a diesel) was actually done 3 months before the policy was taken out but resubmitted by an aggregator later (unasked for) to tempt me with unsolicited renewal quotes. . Admiral knew this sort of thing happened with aggregators but still took any request for a quote as fact. They also waited until after the 14 day cooling off period on the policy before hitting me with this "change I had failed to tell them about". This was a few years back hopefully they have stopped doing this now.