US sets record for billion-dollar weather disasters in a year — and there's still 4 months to go  September 13th 2023

Apple introduces new assistance feature

After introducing crash detection last September, Apple today unveiled another service with insurance implications – roadside assistance.

The new roadside assistance feature builds on the Emergency SOS and Find My via satellite features introduced with the iPhone 14. It is offered in partnership with AAA and will allow users to use the phone’s satellite connectivity when they have no cellular or WiFi service to request roadside assistance.

Roadside Assistance via satellite is included for free for two years with iPhone 15 Pro. The roadside assistance services are covered under the AAA membership or available on a pay-per-use basis for non-AAA members.

Hi Marley, Copart say SMS-based communication will reduce TL cycle time

Copart and Hi Marley have teamed up to co-develop integrated bidirectional communication tools that they say will streamline the automotive total loss (TL) process.

Built with insurance-specific functionality and intelligence, Hi Marley says its user-friendly platform enables insurance companies to communicate with policyholders via SMS text message, “in one trusted thread, resolving claims faster.”

Hi Marley tells Repairer Driven News that, initially, bidirectional communication will be between carriers and their customers/claimants and then, eventually, between Copart and Hi Marley as layer-on features are added. Hi Marley Principal Product Strategist Hugh Allen said the collaboration between the two companies will drive P&C process innovation with a focus on introducing experiences that reduce cycle time and increase customer satisfaction.

ADEPT Driver and Driver Technologies Announce Partnership to Improve Crash Risk Prediction and Driver Safety Performance

ADEPT Driver®, a neurocognitive research and product development company that provides crash avoidance training to the insurance industry, and Driver Technologies, Inc. (Driver), an AI-based mobility tech company that delivers a safer driving experience, today announced a mutual partnership that will lead to improved crash risk prediction, driver safety performance, and reduced insurance costs. This partnership will help drivers using telematics/usage-based insurance technology to understand and improve their collision risk score that impacts their insurance premiums.

"This is a breakthrough for all drivers and insurance underwriters that recognize accident prevention should not be siloed into one solution. Integrating telematics with effective driver behavior modification programs like ours is proven to significantly improve the accuracy of driver risk scores and unsafe driving behaviors," said Dr. Richard Harkness, CEO of ADEPT Driver. "Insurance company actuaries and data scientists have been evaluating the efficacy of our crash reduction programs for over 25 years and have found that collision frequency is reduced by 30% and bodily injury and severity is reduced by up to 50%."

"Our new partnership with ADEPT Driver represents our first expansion into the instructional behavior modification market," said Rashid Galadanci, CEO and co-founder of Driver Technologies. "According to research by the Safe Roads Alliance, 43% of first-year drivers and 37% of second-year drivers are involved in car crashes; therefore, to help reduce this, we're excited to partner with ADEPT Driver to integrate our dashcam and safety alert technology to help provide scoring capabilities to drivers on roads across the country this fall."

After Countrywide Pause, InsurTech Hippo Slowly Reemerging Next Week

A profitability problem that would have otherwise taken InsurTech Hippo half a year to correct is on the mend after just 30 days, the chief executive officer said at an investor conference Thursday.

Speaking at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Insurance conference, Rick McCathron also reported that a nationwide pause in writing new business on Hippo paper, which was put in place last month, will start being lifted—slowly—next week.

“We’re going to start turning the spigot back on in a very selective way in areas in which we think that we are priced adequately,” McCathron said, continuing an analogy to a leaky hose that he introduced in answer to the opening question from KBW Director Tommy McJoynt.

McJoynt asked McCathron for the behind-the-scenes rationalization that went into the decision to pause writings all over the country.

Said McCathron: “I don’t know about you but when I have a leaky hose, I generally turn the hose off at the house before I try to plug the leaks. And that’s exactly what we did.”

The CEO prefaced the response by highlighting Hippo’s “ability to quickly react to a change in market” as a strategic advantage, stressing the benefits of the company’s technology stack and nimble team.

Weather losses that pummeled second-quarter earnings revealed the harsh reality that a more gradual plan of “improving the portfolio by way of diversification” wasn’t working, McCathron said. In the second quarter, Hippo reported a gross loss ratio of 178 for its Hippo Home Insurance Program, one of three business segments contributing to overall results. According to the second-quarter financial statements, the segments—Hippo Home Insurance, Services (consisting of an insurance agency and home care protection services) and Insurance as a Service (fronting business)—all had operating losses, but the bulk of the losses came from the insurance program.

“We talked about it as a management team. We said look, let’s go ahead and shut everything down. Let’s find out where all the holes are in the leaky hose. Let’s plug those holes, and then let’s turn it back on gradually where it makes sense,” he said, later noting that while external messaging from the company at the time indicated that the pause would be temporary, it did give rise to questions.

Autovista Group Acquisition Announcement

J.D. Power, a global leader in data analytics, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Autovista Group, a leading pan-European and Australian automotive data, analytics and industry insights provider. The acquisition complements J.D. Power’s strengths in vehicle valuation and detailed vehicle specification data and analytics while broadening its footprint into the European and Australian automotive markets.

The deal creates strong value for customers of both companies by bringing together Autovista Group’s comprehensive European and Australian market intelligence with J.D. Power’s market-leading predictive analytics and valuation and customer experience datasets. These highly complementary offerings will give original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), dealers, insurers and financing companies a truly global view of critical trends influencing the industry, along with the tools they need to accurately forecast risk, capitalize on burgeoning trends and align sales strategy with real-time market dynamics.

“Precise vehicle valuations and detailed vehicle specifications are the central underpinning to every data-driven strategy in the automotive industry—from optimizing vehicle production to calculating residual values to all manner of insurance—and finance-related risk assessment and repair models, and the combined assets of J.D. Power and Autovista Group will create truly comprehensive, global valuation and forecasting solutions,” said Dave Habiger, president and CEO at J.D. Power. “Additionally, as U.S. consumers increasingly adopt the European model of configuring and ordering a custom vehicle specification, rather than picking whatever the dealer has on the lot, Autovista’s detailed, vehicle-specific data and analytics will give OEMs critical information they need to navigate this change in consumer behavior. We are excited for the Autovista team to join J.D. Power and for the future growth opportunities we will pursue together.”

Meet the insurtech: Percipience

As the data landscape continuously expands, some insurers are opting to migrate their core systems to the cloud for more efficient data storage and retrieval. Legacy data solutions are often not architected to exist on a public cloud, however, which creates a challenge for effective data management as companies deal with the complexity of data integration from diverse sources. 

"Exponentially expanding data sources create tremendous opportunities for insurers to improve decision making and the customer experience. And more and more carriers recognize that moving their data to the cloud is what gives them the scalability and processing power to utilize these new sources of data," said Celent's Karlyn Carnahan, head of insurance for North America in a statement.

"But, while many insurers have begun to move their core systems to the cloud, their existing data solutions aren't architected for the cloud. Consequently, a number of carriers are really struggling to take advantage of advanced learning, machine learning and AI. As carriers continue to expand their data capabilities, a cloud native, platform and tool independent solution can often move them faster and further along the path by deploying where they already have investments and experience through their core applications."

Founded by Bruce Broussard and Ajay Kelshiker, Percipience, an insurtech data and analytics software provider, offers its Data Magnifier platform to address the challenges associated with siloed and disparate data sources. The platform, which includes comprehensive data integration, management and reporting via the cloud or other database platforms, converts isolated data from various sources and enables complete autonomy over the solution's implementation.