Telematics has been a real success in the fleet insurance sector, but struggled to escape from its Under 25 user base in the private car market. That may well change if Mike Brockman from ThingCo has his way and Little Theo could be the gadget that helps the humble black box go mainstream.
IE; It’s been a long road to ThingCo Mike, tell us how you got here.
MB; This is my third company and I’ve been in the insurance industry for a long time, starting with a consultancy for non-Life products and set up insurethebox back in 2009. When we launched that telematics company in 2010 the accepted thinking was that it would fail to catch on, people didn’t want gadgets fitted to their cars etc. We were the first black box insurer and it was something brand new, untested. But at that time some young drivers – especially males under 23 were being quoted over £4000 on a £500 old banger!
It was leading to people driving uninsured and other problems so telematics was something the industry had to come to terms with. Since then insurethebox has written over one million policies and the average premium for young drivers has dropped down to something close to two grand, rather than four – so yeah, progress!
IE; ThingCo is a bit different from that traditional, technician-fitted black box though isn’t it?
MB; Definitely. ThingCo’s Theo gadget is about maximising the asset value of the technology itself, rather than simply reducing insurance premiums. If you look at car insurance from an MGA or insurer point of view then what you’re trying to do a great deal of the time is manage claims better.
Now if you can find a way to process data more efficiently you can save on admin time, save costs when it comes to FNOL, Legal or Recovery third party suppliers, plus you deliver better service to the end user. The Policyholder gets to speak to someone when an incident is detected, so that triage processing starts right there.
Little Theo, which we have just launched is a really clever device because it is solar powered, so it doesn’t need hard-wiring into a car. It’s a driver coach, gives breakdown recovery/FNOL portal and provides crucial evidence after an accident so the issue of blame doesn’t stop the claim.
IE; The telematics evidence from Little Theo prevents that whole argument over who was at fault, even partially.
MB; Exactly. In a traditional motor claim you tend to get to a point a few hours after a minor collision where both sides deny responsibility – usually on the advice of their insurers. Then, people begin hiring cars, so another third party is involved, while two parties argue their case by email or letters. This can take weeks or months, and all the time storage fees are being racked up on top of credit hire. So Theo settles that debate very quickly, which means that both sides can move on. That is perhaps one of the biggest savings that any insurer or MGA can make in the entire claims process.
IE; Cars are getting more connected, packed with tech – especially electric cars. That too is driving up costs, and it offers a wealth of data to manufacturers too?
MB; It does, but I’m not sure the car makers know what to do with all that data. Some insurers struggle with the concept of behaving more like customer-centric retailers, than insurers. Having the capacity to communicate 24/7 is amazing, but how many use it to offer rewards, build brand loyalty etc? For many policyholders their only touchpoints are Renewals or Claims, but tech is turning that way of doing business on its head.
Tech is still advancing rapidly when it comes to syncing in-car data with insurance products. When we started insurethebox a few years back you had to spend months building it. Now with ThingCo we have used Amazon AWS to build our platform to underpin our product build and it is so easy.
We are focusing on delivery of value, the extra benefits, with ThingCo from an insurer perspective and I’ll give you one good example;
Say an 75 year old decides to give up driving. Research suggests that it’s at that exact point that the person becomes more withdrawn, prone to depression and other health problems. They stop going out and engaging with the world. Now if that person’s insurance company suggests that they fit a Theo gadget in their car they will have a driving coach to alert them if they aren’t driving safely, a tracker on-board, plus a friendly voice who can offer help instantly if there’s a problem with the car. Peace of mind basically.
Little Theo is breakdown and recovery, a speed limit alert system, and an evidence gatherer in the event of someone colliding with that person’s car. Insurers can sell that back-up, that extra value of having hands-free event activated rescue right there – and we can help them do it.
IE; What makes Little Theo better than some of the smartphone telematics apps out there?
MB; Several features. Smartphones can vary in the way the built-in accelerometer measures speed and braking. You can get a false positive basically and the accident data might not be that detailed.
Secondly, Little Theo is powered by light and lasts for years, even works fine in winter. Also, not having a hard-wired fitment is another advantage because it can prevent policyholders from saying `your black box is draining my battery, doesn’t give the right speed sometimes etc.’
Those things rarely happen, but the insurer may have to send an engineer out to check the installation was carried out correctly.
So a Little Theo user can cancel, or switch insurers, and take the device with them. It isn’t a black box or a smartphone app that only works with one insurer. It’s truly portable and that means the end user can build up a driving data history.
IE; I was looking at a research project that Ford and Intel did last year, using facial recognition. The driver logs into a car, like a smartphone, and then the car remembers that user. Is that something that might become the next step in telematics?
MB; We use voice recognition with Little Theo, it syncs to Bluetooth as well, and I think sometimes companies create a complex solution to a basic problem. There are privacy issues to think about with facial recognition too, not everyone is comfortable with it, but I can see where car-makers are going with the idea. Actually Little Theo’s sister device – Theo has a camera that could capture the faces of witnesses, or other drivers involved in an accident and then use the algorithm to image match them, to see if they were involved in a previous claim. That isn’t something we do at present, but that is one for politicians to think about in the future maybe.
IE; Finally, how is Corona affecting ThingCo?
MB; We have started the Helping Hands initiative, because so many vulnerable people need help right now. In fact the Cabinet Office just approved us as a supplier of delivery services to people who are in isolation. When you think about it, if you’re delivering medicines from a pharmacy, you need to know which driver is doing that job and where they are. Our Little Theo voice recognition tech allows the NHS to know that an accredited driver is doing the work and that’s important right now.
IE; Mike thank you for your time.
Be the first to comment