[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to AMBAST audio.
[SPEAKER_00]: Connected CAR technology, telematics, and in vehicle video are rapidly transforming the insurance landscape from enhancing underwriting precision to accelerating claims resolution and reducing fraud.
[SPEAKER_00]: These tools are driving a new era of data driven decision-making.
[SPEAKER_00]: as mobility evolves and ensures the greater real-time visibility into risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: The integration of video and telematics is becoming a key differentiator across the industry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Lori Chortis for AMBEST audio and joining us now to discuss that, the future of connected card data in insurance and what these innovations mean for underwriting and claims
[SPEAKER_00]: is Rashid Galadansi, co-founder and CEO of Driver Technologies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rashid, welcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's wonderful to speak with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for joining us today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for having me.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rashid, how are connected cars and telematics reshaping underwriting and claims today?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's next?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I think what's been interesting to see is that these cars that have been coming online since probably about twenty, twenty, twenty, twenty-one have had these connected capabilities.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think the average end user has typically taken advantage of that in the form of say Google Maps or Spotify built into their car.
[SPEAKER_02]: When it comes to the insurance industry, interestingly, I think a lot of the traction
[SPEAKER_02]: in the past couple years has been a little bit opaque to the end user and has often involved some sort of combination of opting in or not opting in and end user having their data, you know, brought to a organization that emalgamates lots of data from all of the world, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then that data is made available almost in like a back channel kind of way to an insurance company and then affects your rates.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you may have seen there was significant kind of pushback from a number of states, regulators, folks like that, a couple lawsuits last year around this topic.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think, unfortunately, it hasn't been something that the end user, the average consumer has gotten to take advantage of very much.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think what you'll see moving forward is very similar to what happened with credit scores and credit ratings over the years.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a long time where the credit score was like a very confusing thing to most people.
[SPEAKER_02]: It still is a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then you saw this kind of massive consumer improvement of education and understanding a number of companies and apps that came out to help you better understand why is my credit score going up or down and what can I do about it?
[SPEAKER_02]: And really ending up with people feeling like they had control over it and being able to go into a car dealership or a bank can say, I already know what my credit's clear is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is what I want to get out of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so my hope is that, and certainly our work at Driver focuses on this, is that this can end up being something where the connected car becomes a tool of the consumer that they can use to their own benefit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what about video?
[SPEAKER_00]: What role is video playing in improving claims accuracy and reducing fraud?
[SPEAKER_00]: And how are partnerships like drivers collaboration with both advancing the use of mobile based video technology in insurance?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's super interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we work across the commercial
[SPEAKER_02]: sharing economy and consumer markets.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what we've seen over the past few years is that the commercial insurance industry is incredibly aware of the power of video and that we have lots and lots of everything you'd imagine, like an eighteen wheeler down to a Amazon or Walmart delivery type driver.
[SPEAKER_02]: using our products and products like ours with video, and the commercial insurance companies are always interested in either incentivizing, mandating, and then receiving this video evidence in claims and even in underwriting.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you look at sort of the consumer side of things in the sharing economy side of things, there's a lot less adoption.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there are a whole bunch of reasons for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think that the direction that the industry is going in
[SPEAKER_02]: is bringing video into all those sources or all those types of drivers.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just a game changer for an insurer.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we often get questions around, well, what if it's the drivers fault then there's a video, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think the reality is that if you're an insurer knowing what happened,
[SPEAKER_02]: gets a lot of the potential damage out of the way, whether that's legal fees, time wasted, even if you're at fault, knowing the level of severity of different elements that played into a car crash, all these things are a huge benefit.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's funny.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the first times we showed our platform to some folks at a real tier one insurance company.
[SPEAKER_02]: We thought of it as a safety and coaching kind of platform, and they looked at it, and then we'd say, oh my gosh, this is a claims dream.
[SPEAKER_00]: And can you tell us more about your partnership with Bolt?
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, right.
[SPEAKER_02]: So basically, I think part of what causes us to start the company is that I was riding around in a lot of lifts and ubers.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there were a couple other companies at the time, seven or eight years ago, like Juno and folks like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would talk to drivers who knew about the value of a dash cam and protecting them and even protecting their passengers.
[SPEAKER_02]: but they couldn't afford an expensive cloud connected, instant upload, always recording, dash cam.
[SPEAKER_02]: But of course for their job, they might have two or three phones sitting around.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that was really our aha moment that, you know, when you have an eighteen wheeler, of course, you can budget in a dedicated video recording device.
[SPEAKER_02]: But when you have a small passenger vehicle and maybe you're only driving, sharing economy, delivery or ride share a couple hours a week,
[SPEAKER_02]: what you do have as a phone.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, Bolt saw the huge advantage of that on a global scale and were quick to partner with us in promoting our product out to their drivers globally.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think what drivers like about it is that it's not something that's mandated from Bolt.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bolt isn't watching them or their passengers at any time.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really just a tool for them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if they have an incident, they can use that data to support their claim.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what are you seeing today in terms of trends around consumer and commercial adoption of video telematics?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so commercial is like wildfire.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think by the end of the decade, every commercial vehicle will have video and telematics for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just such a catastrophic thing if your company has an incident and you can't properly prove out what happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think on the consumer side,
[SPEAKER_02]: There's definitely a longer tale of adoption, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Consumers only drive a couple hours a day.
[SPEAKER_02]: Most often, you know, safety is a third or fourth order of thought when they're really just trying to get to work or pick up the kids or whatever it is they're doing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think a lot of consumers feel uncomfortable with getting in a vehicle and there's like a hard, hard wear camera built in there, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: You're picking up your friends or driving a family around.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what we've really tried to do is kind of that jump that everyone made to having Google Maps in their phone.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just super convenient.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just throw it up there when you want to use it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And even farther, having it built into the car, just like Google Maps has now built into many new cars.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that should make adoption very easy.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't have to think about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just there for when you need it.
[SPEAKER_00]: As video and telematics become more integrated into insurance,
[SPEAKER_00]: What privacy or regulatory consideration should the industry be watching closely?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think this is a big one for us.
[SPEAKER_02]: This has been actually the main driver of our success with the connected car industry, which is that I think as I mentioned at the top of the call, consumers are going to and regulators are going to increasingly be focused on transparency and clarity and simple understanding for the average consumer.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so putting the power of, hey, this is the data I want to share, you know, things that we're used to on our phones now, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: You start a new app and it asks you, hey, can this app use your location, can this app use your camera, can it access your photos?
[SPEAKER_02]: These are all things we've had to learn over time with our connected devices.
[SPEAKER_02]: Imagine, ten years ago, how much data we were putting out to Facebook and other platforms without any understanding of what was going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so if you think of the cars, just a big computer,
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we're going to have that same transition and education.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rashid, how is the rise of shared mobility platforms influencing insurance product design and risk management today?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I won't say who but a large sharing economy platform probably the one you think of actually ran a large study and what they found was that
[SPEAKER_02]: When drivers and passengers both know that there's some sort of camera in the vehicle, they are both more comfortable.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even if the camera is owned by the driver, just knowing that there's a video evidence of what happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think this fits this theme of transparency that there will be an increasing push towards.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not being OK to have a crash without an explanation of what happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think ensures, well, really be latching on to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And looking ahead, how do you see connected vehicle technology and video-based telematics transforming the insurance industry over the next five to ten years?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if they do it right, five to ten years is very fast for the insurance industry.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if they do it right, we should find an industry in which things are much more transparent and that
[SPEAKER_02]: effects both underwriting.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why am I getting the pricing I'm getting?
[SPEAKER_02]: It should be based on how I drive, not based on things like my zip code or my credit score alone.
[SPEAKER_02]: How can I improve those things?
[SPEAKER_02]: If I am not in a situation where I can change my zip code or improve my credit score, what can I do with my driving to prove that I'm a worthy risk?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then when something happens, understanding why I'm what is the outcome here and who's it faulted why?
[SPEAKER_02]: And if they can do that in a way that's transparent to the end user and puts them in control, then they will avoid the regulatory headache that could be coming if the industry tries to access data without the consumer.
[SPEAKER_02]: Really understanding it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what's next for driver technologies?
[SPEAKER_00]: Anything new or exciting that you're able to share?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we'll be announcing a number of sharing economy partnerships like the Baltimore.
[SPEAKER_02]: on through the mobile side of things.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then in the connected car thing, that's really our focus for the second half of the year.
[SPEAKER_02]: We will be rolling out products like what we've kind of discussed today where you can better understand your driving
[SPEAKER_02]: use your vehicle as sort of an asset.
[SPEAKER_02]: So understand, okay, here's where my car is right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got lost in the parking lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where can I find it?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, is my teenager driving ninety five miles an hour and a thirty mile an hour zone, things like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But financially, even more importantly, you can access great insurance from really top tier insurance partners based on how you drive and add a lot of savings and without sharing a lot of your personal information.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rashi, this has been so interesting, so insightful.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a pleasure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, thanks for having me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I really appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was Rashi Gallaudancy, co-founder and CEO of Driver Technologies.
[SPEAKER_00]: For Am Best Audio, I'm Laurie Chordes.
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