Top Personal Auto Insurers See Decline in Underwriting Profits
Posted on Dec 29, 2015 in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Top Personal Auto Insurers See Decline in Underwriting Profits
Fitch Ratings is reporting a dip in profitability in underwriting for private passenger auto insurance. The decline in profits over the first nine months of 2015 is due to increases in claim severability and claim frequency, which in turn may be caused by increased driving. These findings dispel predictions that recent technological innovations in vehicle safety would result in a...
California Takes First Step Toward Regulation of Autonomous Vehicles
Posted on Dec 18, 2015 in Industry News | Comments Off on California Takes First Step Toward Regulation of Autonomous Vehicles
California has developed preliminary regulations for autonomous vehicles, anticipating the day when they will be offered for sale. The proposed rules impose additional certification requirements on users; permit manufacturers to lease, rather than sell, the driverless cars; and make the user, rather than the car, responsible for obeying the traffic laws. This latter requirement means...
FTC to Address U.S. Auto Distribution System
Posted on Dec 18, 2015 in Industry News | Comments Off on FTC to Address U.S. Auto Distribution System
The Federal Trade Commission has announced that it will host a workshop on the U.S. auto distribution system on January 19, 2016 in Washington, D.C. The workshop is intended to focus on competition issues arising from state regulation of the distribution system, as well as how that regulatory environment may be affected by emerging trends in the auto industry. The FTC has invited...
The Potential Value of Telematics in Insurance Claims Handling
Posted on Dec 11, 2015 in Insurance Developments and Trends, Technology Impacting Auto Insurance | Comments Off on The Potential Value of Telematics in Insurance Claims Handling
Through vehicle telematics, data on a wide variety of driving behaviors (acceleration, deceleration, braking, and more) can be obtained through the vehicle’s engine control units (ECUs). Such data is already being used by insurers in pricing and underwriting, but the new frontier for telematics could be claims handling. According to Donald Light, the director of Celent’s...
US Regulators Seek To Upgrade Crash Safety Ratings and Test Dummies
Posted on Dec 10, 2015 in Industry News, Insurance Regulation, Technology Impacting Auto Insurance | Comments Off on US Regulators Seek To Upgrade Crash Safety Ratings and Test Dummies
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) has recently proposed to update its five-star crash-test rating system to account for changes in technology. The proposal was motivated in part by an increase in highway fatalities—despite a general decrease in such deaths over the past decade, the fatality rate rose by 8.1% in the first half of 2015. The NHTSA proposal...
