Earlier this year, LexisNexis Risk Solutions boosted auto insurers’ ability to build customer-facing Web-sites and apps that integrated telematics information into companies’ customer support portfolios. The goal was to allow insurers to provide their policyholders with broader usage-based insurance (UBI) benefits. Using the LexisNexis Risk Solutions software development kit (SDK), insurers could simply plug into the LexisNexis Global Telematics Platform and begin building applications.
Usage-based insurance, which is sometimes called “pay as you drive” or “pay how you drive,” is insurance with costs that are determined by how the driver uses a vehicle. Premiums are dependent upon a number of factors, including the type of vehicle used, driving speed and distance, driver behavior (rapid acceleration and hard braking, for example) and location. As an insurance concept, UBI is heavily dependent on telematics information supplied by the vehicle. The insurance company assesses the data and charges insurance premiums accordingly. It’s a more personal way to determine premiums compared to traditional auto insurance, which relies heavily on aggregate data from broad demographics populations.
The first companies to offer UBI were Progressive Insurance Company and General Motors Assurance Company (GMAC), and these organizations blazed technology paths with linking telematics to insurance. Took kits such as LexisNexis Risk Solutions SDK allow all insurance companies straightforward technological access to the company’s global telematics platform. Rather than having to do it themselves, insurers can take advantage of LexisNexis’ data security, advanced analytics for “big data” and a direct data pipe into the insurance markets’ software infrastructure. (Data security is a major hurdle for technology providers in the connected car space.)
LexisNexis Risk Solutions is now encouraging automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to take advantage of the software development kit. OEMs can use the technology to build new UBI-based customer applications across different regions and in different languages, all on the same platform, or improve customer-facing apps. By embracing usage-based insurance, OEMs can help lower the costs of vehicle ownership, according to LexisNexis Risk Solution’s VP of global products Rutger Van der Wall.
“The SDK removes the complexity and cost OEMs would otherwise face in developing the technical infrastructure needed to help the industry connect to insurance products for the type of consumer services their customers want, based on their driving data,” he said. “It allows OEMs to focus on design and delivery, product innovation and consumer engagement using driver scoring, journey and route information.”
