Commentary/Opinion
EV sales are thriving. Here’s how the US can stay in the race
Jon McNeill, founder of venture studio DvX and vice chair of the Cruise board, weighs in on where the U.S. stands in the EV revolution.
If you base your opinions on recent news, you might think that the electric vehicle industry in the U.S. is in dire straits. Headlines tout that carmakers are worried about EV growth, consumer demand is waning, and President Biden’s tax breaks haven’t helped drive consumers towards EVs.
So this bit of news might come as a surprise: EV sales rose a whopping 50% in the third quarter compared to a year earlier. Electric vehicles are actually selling faster than any other automotive segment, and total sales are expected to exceed 1 million for the first time this year.
Jon McNeill is the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Cruise, GM’s autonomous vehicle unit. He is also the founder of DVx, a venture studio, which has launched seven companies. Jon is the former President of Tesla and COO of Lyft, and currently sits on the Boards of GM, lululemon, and Asurion.
Top Five Questions Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara Must Answer About his Wildfire Insurance Plan
Consumer Watchdog today called on members of the Assembly Insurance Committee to make Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara answer five tough questions about the wildfire insurance deal he cut with the insurance industry, and whether it will benefit consumers or insurers. Commissioner Lara will testify about his plan before an Assembly Insurance Committee Oversight Hearing this afternoon.
Commissioner Lara announced a deal with insurers and plan for regulations in September that he said would expand home insurance coverage for Californians. The center of the plan was a supposed "85% commitment" by insurers to increase insurance sales in wildfire areas. However, documents Consumer Watchdog obtained under the Public Records Act reveal that the legislation his plan is based on would not require insurers to offer comprehensive home insurance to a single new homeowner.
The top five questions Assembly Insurance Committee members should ask of Commissioner Lara are:
- Will you allow insurance companies to meet their "85% Commitment" by selling bare-bones policies like those consumers already have access to at the FAIR Plan, or will you require they sell the full-benefit policies that Californians need?
- Will you waive the "85% Commitment" for any insurer that claims it cannot meet it?
- When will the mitigation discounts you promised for homeowners who harden their homes and clear brush be approved and start benefiting consumers?
- Will you support a mandate that insurers sell coverage to every existing homeowner who protects their home from fire?
- Will you back the creation of a public catastrophe model in California so insurers cannot hide the information we need to make sure models' predictions of fire risk are accurate and that they treat consumers fairly?
News
Allstate approved for double-digit rate increases in California, New York and New Jersey
Allstate announced Thursday double-digit rate increases for auto insurance in California, New York and New Jersey, following comments CEO and President Tom Wilson made last week that the company would drop insurance customers in those states, if rates weren’t increased.
California approved a 30% increase, New York a 14.66% increase and New Jersey a 20% increase, according to an Allstate press release. It states the rates will be implemented in December with effective dates through February.
The announcement comes just days after Wilson said, during a Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference, that the company would exit those states if auto insurance rates weren’t increased.
“If we don’t get price increases this year, or approved this year, in those states, we’re going to move from just not taking on new businesses to having to say goodbye to existing customers,” Wilson said. “We don’t want to do that. I think the regulators would prefer we not do that. We are not threatening anybody. We are just saying we can’t afford to lose that much money in those three states.”
Wilson said Allstate needed to increase its price for auto insurance by 30% in California and New Jersey to make a profit in those states. New York needs an increase of 18%, he said.
Nearly 104 Million Expected to Take Road Trip Over Christmas, New Year’s in U.S.
Second highest year-end holiday travel forecast since AAA began tracking in 2000. AAA projects nearly 104 million people will drive to their holiday destinations, an increase of 1.8% compared to 2022.
This year’s projected number of drivers is the second highest on record after 2019 when 108 million drivers hit the road for the holidays. As 2023 comes to a close, drivers can expect to pay about the same or less for a gallon of gas than they did last holiday season, when the national average on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day was $3.10 and $3.20 respectively.
Sfara upgrades SDK, further enhancing technology, and now offering the only complete telematics solution for insurance carriers
Sfara now offering the only complete telematics solution for insurance carriers
As a result of rising repair costs—therefore premiums—the insurance industry is facing increasingly tough economic challenges, both today and into tomorrow. The goal of claims digitization is a long-desired path to economic reward. Many leading carriers and industry analyst believe at the heart of this goal resides superior telematics solutions, with smartphone-based FNOL, that can be deployed to all policy holders.
"It takes more sophisticated technologies and approaches to achieve today's complex goals than are available in solutions created for simpler times," said Nino Tarantino.
Sfara's leadership, and much of its staff, comes from the frontiers of telematics: founders, leaders, innovators. They knew the hidden traps in telematics, not only in its technology, but in its execution at the program level. So when Sfara was formed, it built its models around the problems, tackling the most difficult ones first.
Plus, it's all available in a smartphone-based solution, easily integrated into flagship apps with a single SDK, and including Sfara's industry leading false detection suppression technologies.
At the heart of Sfara's ground-breaking technologies is their data hygiene, which they call their Integrated Suppression Framework (ISF). Any data flowing through the ISF they identify as being Framework-cleansed. ISF analyzes, cleanses and removes dirty data, while suppressing false detections. ISF was developed specifically for safety-of-life services for enterprises.
Tesla's massive recall, from the perspective of a claims professional
Insurance experts predict this is a sign of things to come as cars become more tech-laden.
Tesla Motors, Inc. is recalling more than 2 million cars due to its Autosteer feature, which “may not be sufficient to prevent driver misuse of the SAE Level 2 advanced driver-assistance feature,” according to a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Only vehicles in the U.S. and Canada are affected by the recall.
According to NHTSA, there is an increased risk of a crash when Autosteer is used and the driver fails to maintain responsibility for the car’s operation. The administration also noted instances where Autosteer was engaged and drivers were unprepared to intervene or did not realize when the feature was turned off.
From 2012-2022, Tesla has sold around 3.61 million units worldwide. Credit Statista
Revealed - insurance's Hot 100 | Insurance Business America
Winners recognized for shaping the future of the industry with innovation and excellence
Insurance Business America (IBA) has released its Hot 100 for 2024, leading insurance professionals who are shaping the future of the industry with their innovation and excellence.
Beginning in August 2023, IBA invited insurance professionals from across the USA to nominate exceptional leaders for the ninth IBA Hot 100 list.
After receiving 100s of nominations, the IBA team narrowed down the list to 100 insurance leaders whose contributions have helped shape the industry over the past 12 months.
The IBA Hot 100 for 2024 is proudly supported by the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD).
Research
[Ed. Note: Highly Recommended] EY Global Insurance Industry Trends: 2024 Global Insurance Outlook
How increased trust and transparency can unlock growth. 2024 Global Insurance Outlook - Strengthening trust to unlock innovation and growth
Explore the EY Global Insurance Industry Outlook link here
The insurance industry continues to be shaped by disruptive forces – from technology advancement and new competition to increased regulatory scrutiny and evolving customer behavior. Insurers will need to address these factors to stay competitive in 2024 and beyond.
The 2024 EY Global Insurance Outlook focuses on three issues that are impacting the industry worldwide.
Discover key insights on: - Preparing for the transformative impact of Generative AI (Gen AI) - Delivering societal value as regulators and public authorities have been prompted to revisit long-standing rules and guidelines for the industry. - Ever-evolving customer needs and blurring industry lines.
AI in Insurance
How insurtech is using artificial intelligence - Information Age
Insurance technology (insurtech) is rapidly evolving, allowing for digitalisation of insurance sector processes. Here, we explore the role of AI in this trend.
While a traditionally stagnant industry in regards to digital transformation of processes, the insurance sector has seen more rapid innovation in the last few years, as firms look to get ahead amidst intensifying competition.
As well as evolving culture within, and indeed beyond the business to bolster partnerships, insurance technology (insurtech) capabilities underpinned by artificial intelligence are now widely available to procure across the market.
With insurance-facing AI capabilities predicted to reach global market value totalling almost $80bn by 2030, there is much room to grow regarding discovery of new value add, use cases and revenue streams for insurers. Here are some valuable examples of artificial intelligence innovation in insurtech, as well as the present risks to consider, and how insurance firms can go about maintaining success with the technology.
Aaron Hurst is Information Age's senior reporter, providing news and features around the hottest trends across the tech industry.
InsurTech/M&A/Finance💰/Collaboration
Ford Pro Insure launches to make commercial auto insurance easier - Chicago Business Journal
In a business environment focused on simplification and ease for customers, commercial auto insurance seems to be an outlier.
Yet businesses must have fleet insurance and navigate these complexities. Making things simpler and easier for customers is why we decided to begin providing Ford Pro Insure, the first commercial automotive insurance product offered by an automaker-owned insurance carrier in the U.S.
The industry is fragmented, with more than 50 commercial auto insurance providers in the U.S. and no single provider holding more than 13% market share. According to a 2023 J.D. Power report, customer satisfaction with auto insurance providers (commercial and private) experienced the biggest one-year drop in two decades.
Ford Pro Insure is offered with managing general agent Pie Insurance in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Wisconsin, and we intend to expand it across the country over the next few years. The deliberate approach is worthwhile. Aligning across states will help simplify the process of obtaining coverage and reduce time-consuming administration for businesses.
SiriusPoint and Nirvana Insurance announce new partnership - Reinsurance News
Nirvana Insurance, an AI and Technology-powered insurance provider specialising in US commercial auto insurance, has entered into a new strategic partnership with specialty re/insurer SiriusPoint to expand its offering with a new non-fleet program.
Patrick Charles, Head of North America Insurance at SiriusPoint, commented: “We have been providing capacity to Nirvana since January 2022, so we were already familiar with its capabilities.
“During our working relationship, Nirvana has proven to be a high-quality underwriter of risk and demonstrated how the thoughtful use of telematics can better align driver behaviour with underwriting risk. We believe Nirvana’s business model is promising and its offering ties into our purpose of providing security and resilience to those we work with.”
Launched in 2022, San Francisco-based Nirvana leverages telematics data to pass savings of up to 20% to fleets based on safety.
Backed by SiriusPoint paper, Nirvana aims to expand its offering with a new non-fleet program, designed for fleets with fewer than 10 power units.
People
Important Announcement: Leadership Change at edjuster
I am writing to share an important update regarding leadership changes at edjuster. I am excited to share that I have stepped into the role of president, edjuster, as of November 1, 2023. Andy Williams will officially transition out of his role as president and CEO and into a consulting role, where he will remain in a full-time capacity until January 1, 2024 to ensure a seamless transition for our clients.
Melanie Hughes, President, edjuster; Melanie.Hughes@crawco.ca