California firm launches telematics smartphone offering for usage-based auto insurance
September 6, 2013 by Canadian Underwriter
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A San Francisco technology firm has launched a new telematics smartphone app for the usage-based auto insurance market.
The SmartUBI platform is a telematics offering that includes a smartphone application, cloud-based analytics and portals, according to its creator, Driveway Software.
The offering is meant to be a cost-effective, quick to deploy telematics solution for insurance carriers. A policyholder would use their own smartphone to monitor their driving behaviour and capture data. Insurers can then use the cloud portal to assess the drivers’ risk.
Currently, the company’s target market is United States only, so the app’s distribution is limited to U.S. app stores, CEO Jake Diner told Canadian Underwriter. “There is no technological limitation to use it anywhere else, but for now it will remain USA only,” he added.
The SmartUBI Platform and its features include:
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Customized smartphone UBI app for the collection of driver data;
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Preliminary analysis within the app to produce a driving score with guidelines customized for each carrier;
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Driving data uploaded to Driveway’s SmartUBI cloud servers for a more detailed analysis against a broader data set; and
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Driving data, including scores, transferred from cloud servers to carrier’s system via SmartUBI’s carrier portal for use in underwriting, pricing, rewards, incentives, pay-as-you-go billing, etc.
“While the Driveway name might be new to the insurance industry, we have been around for some time offering our smartphone app to consumers with over 150,000 drivers already using our software,” Diner noted in a statement.
“Similar to the adoption cycle of credit-based insurance scoring, risk scoring using telematics is today’s competitive advantage for the early adopter auto carriers and will quickly become a necessity for every carrier to remain competitive in the auto insurance market,” added Dave Huber, a telematics industry consultant and president of Kairos Solutions.
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