NEW AUTO SAFETY FEATURES POSE DATA PROBLEMS FOR INSURANCE CARRIERS

As automakers continue to roll out new technology designed to avoid crashes, auto insurance carriers say they are scrambling to keep up.

It is estimated that more than $67 billion will be spent globally on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) by 2025.¹ Systems are being developed to automate, adapt and enhance vehicle systems for safety, by minimizing possible human error.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) estimates that this commitment will prevent 28,000 crashes and 12,000 injuries by 2025.² Identified as a top safety feature, automatic emergency braking systems with forward collision warning and crash imminent braking reduce rear-end crashes by over half, IIHS research indicates. Because this feature is so effective, 20 carmakers have pledged to outfit nearly every new vehicle with forward collision warning by 2020.

Other highly regarded ADAS features include adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning/lane keep, blind spot detection, rear-view camera and facial recognition software.

While these life-saving technologies are of course positive, they have thrown a wrench into things for insurance providers.

These advanced features are changing vehicle profiles — as well as the insurance risk profile as a whole. Insurance carriers need to understand the underlying asset they are insuring. Unfortunately, identifying the exact features on a specific vehicle — and the impact of those features — has been largely unavailable.

At this time, most ADAS features are still sold as optional equipment or bundled within marketing packages, making it impossible for insurance companies to validate which components ultimately end up on a specific vehicle. Insurance carriers are forced to trust car owners to correctly identify the technology installed on their vehicles.

Because features differ greatly by name, description and performance, it is difficult to compare them apple to apples across manufacturers – and even across models of the same brand.

StudyPRICE

With over 30 years as the leader in vehicle data and content, Autodata Solutions has now applied their expertise to address the data issues facing the auto insurance industry due to ADAS.

StudyPRICE is the automotive industry’s first normalized, analytics-ready and VIN-specific risk analysis application. It enables insurance carriers to identify and evaluate vehicle features that mitigate loss or severity of loss, reduce risk and result in more competitively priced auto premiums.

With StudyPRICE, insurance carriers can analyze the correlation between their historical auto claims, ADAS features and other advanced features that exist on the VIN. StudyPRICE discovers all active and passive safety features, features deemed to be too expensive to replace/repair after an accident, as well as theft-preventative features.

Because the detailed data provided through StudyPRICE is normalized (vehicle features are described and coded consistently across years, models and OEMs), comparison and analytics can be performed with a significantly better degree of accuracy. Autodata Solutions keeps track of new technologies by adding them to the database as they enter the market.

Having the ability to compare over 1,000 feature attributes on each vehicle is a game changer for insurance carriers. At the end of the day, more precise risk evaluation means better ROI.

Learn more about StudyPRICE or call 1-866-430-8524.

Sources

¹ New auto safety technology leaves insurers in the dark, Automotive News

² 10 automakers equipped most of their 2018 vehicles with automatic emergency braking, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration