Skip to main content

89 million insurance telematics subscribers by 2017

According to new research by ABI Research, insurance telematics users will grow at a CAGR of 90 per cent from 1.85 million in 2010 to 89 million in 2017.
March 13, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
According to new research by 5725 ABI Research, insurance telematics users will grow at a CAGR of 90 per cent from 1.85 million in 2010 to 89 million in 2017. Dominique Bonte, group director, telematics and navigation, comments, “While insurance telematics or usage based insurance (UBI) is far from a recent phenomenon – US-based Progressive was already trialling solutions back in 2002 – a renewed interest in this market has occurred over the past two years, with an acceleration in uptake, as well as a dramatic change in the very nature of UBI, migrating from pay as you drive (PAYD) to pay how you drive (PHYD) based on continuous driver behaviour monitoring and analysis.”

UBI allows insurance vendors to establish a continuous communication and feedback channel to build brand loyalty in an increasingly competitive auto insurance market. In the same way, value-added service packages including emergency services, roadside assistance, stolen vehicle tracking, teen driver monitoring, and vehicle diagnostics are often offered.

While the de-averaged pricing model and fairness principle of UBI to treat customers as individuals and have them pay for the risks they are actually taking instead of premiums depending on inaccurate proxies such as age and gender is gaining acceptance, many barriers hindering mass market uptake are still in place: self-selection of low risk drivers, privacy, lack of understanding of complex offers, lack of historical perspective validated by statistical data, absence of standards, installation of telematics hardware, and IP litigation.    

While currently the default UBI hardware solution consists of a dedicated device plugged into the vehicle’s diagnostics OBD port, future UBI hardware solutions will increasingly be based on either factory-installed technology (as in-car connectivity penetration rates increase) or – for the aftermarket – converged devices such as smartphones wirelessly connecting to the OBD bus via Bluetooth adapters.

ABI Research’s new study, “Insurance Telematics,” covers the different solutions for insurance telematics including PAYD and PHYD across different form factors such as embedded, portable, and converged in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World. It includes detailed descriptions of market drivers and barriers, as well as shipment, subscribers, and discount forecasts.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • America fires V2V starting gun
    April 7, 2014
    Leo McCloskey, ITS America’s senior vice president for Technical Programs, talks to Jason Barnes about what the recent NHTSA ruling on light vehicle connectivity means for cooperative infrastructures in North America. In early February the US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it had decided to start taking steps to enable Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles. In so doing, the many safety-related applicati
  • Prevention is better than cure says Antaira’s David Zaveski
    November 2, 2016
    Antaira’s David Zaveski looks at how to improve the resilience of Ethernet systems. Detection and monitoring, and the subsequent management of transport systems, is becoming ever more sophisticated and also integrated as ITS spreads wider across cities and along highways and rail corridors.
  • Standalone connected car smartphone launched
    February 21, 2013
    Israeli telecommunications company Accel Telecom has partnered with navigation and traffic app supplier Waze to launch Voyager, which it claims is the first standalone connected car smartphone device that can be easily installed in any car and operates using an existing phone number via a twin-SIM. The company says Voyager is a dedicated connected car smartphone device that provides drivers with a safer and superior connected car experience. The device combines android based smartphone technology with an HS
  • Transportation safety and security markets worth US$62.96 billion by 2018
    December 2, 2013
    The latest report from MarketsandMarkets forecasts the global transportation safety and transportation security market to grow from US$37.80 billion in 2013 to US$62.96 billion in 2018, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.7 per cent from 2013 to 2018. North America (NA) is expected to be the biggest contributor in terms of revenue contribution, while the growing markets Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America (LA), are expected to experience increased market traction