Apr 15 / Author: Harold Leitner

CONNECTED CAR TELEMATICS AND UBI

It has been fascinating to watch the development of telematics for driver safety over the past 15 years. We have gone from telematics hardware costing thousands of dollars to being virtually hardware free with smartphone and connected vehicle telematics. How will this evolution affect drivers and their insurers?

Telematics Technology Evolution

It started with very expensive telematics devices being hard wired into vehicles to get speed and location data. This led to the addition of accelerometers, engine diagnostic, and cellular modems to gather much richer driver behavior data in real time. This evolved into plug-in dongle telematics devices and then smartphone telematics. Today almost all new vehicles are wirelessly connected and provide very detailed data on driver behavior like lane departures, following distance, and crash alerts.

Connected Vehicle Telematics

For those new to the technology, connected vehicles have telematics devices installed by the vehicle manufacturer that tap into the engine computer to capture all kinds of data. Collected data includes location, driver behavior, engine diagnostics, to name a few. This data is then transmitted via cellular networks to the vehicle manufacturer. The vehicle manufacturers then partner with third parties, like auto insurance companies, to offer value-added products and services to vehicle owners.

Connected Vehicles & Smartphone Telematics for UBI

Auto insurers were quick to see the value of driver behavior data for underwriting and began using it to offer usage based insurance (UBI) over a decade ago. However, the costs and complexity of providing telematics hardware devices to insureds limited adoption. In the last few years, smartphone telematics eliminated these constraints, so now UBI adoption is growing rapidly.  Now auto insurers are accessing connected car data that they hope will “drive” usage based insurance into the mainstream.

The next article in this series will describe how connected vehicle based telematics is disrupting auto insurance.

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Harold Leitner

VP, Business Development

With over 25 years of technology sales, business development, and account management experience Harold leads Xemplar’s business development team. He has successfully driven business growth for early stage technology providers across a range of industries including e-commerce, finance, IOT, connected fleet technology and telematics. Harold holds an MBA from Northern Illinois University and a degree in International Business from Illinois State University.

SriKrishna “SK” Tirumala

CEO & Co-Founder

Over the last 24+ years, SK has been at the forefront of delivering technology solutions in Property & Casualty. For the last few years, he has been spearheading the development of risk management solutions at Xemplar Insights, LLC. As the head of the business, SK passionately leads R&D and product engineering teams to advance the Xemplar product portfolio. He is continuously associated with customers, prospects and industry partners in solving their chronic business issues with cutting-edge technology.

Xemplar Solutions Suite

XEMPLAR AUTO is a comprehensive mobile, cloud, and web solution that enables personal auto insurers to close gaps in their digital capabilities. Designed to support loss containment strategies using state-of-the-art smartphone telematics, it can also include policy self-service capabilities to drive adoption and lower servicing costs. Insurers get a powerful analytics portal to analyze where, when, and how risk occurs in their book of business. Granular data can be used develop new rating variables for Usage Based Insurance (UBI).

Personal and Commercial P&C policyholders value the ease-of-doing business with their insurers over mobile and web channels. They are attracted to insurers with better digital capabilities for convenience and better service. Insurers understand that building relationships and creating loyalty with policyholders is key to their on-going profitability and success. The Xemplar Engage solution enables insurers to rapidly innovate and advance their digital transformation strategy with self-service features on mobile and web channels, resulting in significant competitive advantages with improved customer experience.

Xemplar Drive – Business was designed as a non-white-labeled option for Commercial Auto Insurers that believe that the policyholders will be apprehensive about using a data gathering solution provided by their insurance carrier. Xemplar Drive – Business would be referred by the insurer to the Commercial Auto policyholders (small businesses to large fleet owners) as a solution for risk prevention and loss control.
Xemplar Drive – Business is also available as a white-labeled off-the-shelf B2C subscription-based solution (SaaS or private) sold directly to Large Corporates, Commercial Businesses, and other Institutions that operate a fleet of vehicles, as a self-administered risk management solution.

Xemplar Drive – Business is a branded off-the-shelf, B2C subscription-based solution sold through distribution channels such as driving schools or not-for-profit organizations to individuals and/or parents of teens as means to analyze driving habits of themselves, or young drivers as they gain driving experience and develop good driving habits.

Xemplar Stack’s suite of licensable and adaptable software feature frameworks, platform architectures, design patterns, and data model assets helps businesses save development time and costs and jumpstart the creation of tailored software solutions for unique business cases.

About Xemplar Insights

Our journey began in early 2015 while experimenting with smartphone technology to analyze motion patterns that led us to develop an innovative and economical smartphone telematics solution for loss containment. We then extended our capabilities to include numerous new features including policy and claim services, and developed turn-key solutions for Personal and Commercial P&C Insurers. Today, Xemplar is an established digital solutions company that offers both pre-configured and tailor-made solutions to insurers and commercial businesses, with many companies using our products and services to drive their digital transformation.