What We’re Reading
September 21, 2022
Connected revolution: The future of US auto insurance (McKinsey & Company, September 15, 2022)
This white paper presents a convincingly prescient view into the future of mobility and the paradigm-shifting impact it will have on the global insurance ecosystem. As connected cars and embedded telematics become more commonplace, insurers will need to pivot to products that are based on vehicle usage in real time, combined with an automated-claims process, to remain competitive in the rapidly evolving auto insurance risk and profit pools.
As the automotive insurance market becomes more “connected” and technology redraws lines that have for decades defined how insuring opportunities are distributed between OEMs and insurers, an insurance carrier’s ability to identify and implement appropriate partnership models with OEMs will become increasingly imperative to financial success. “The advantage will accrue to players on both sides of the marketplace that act early enough to carefully assess and then capitalize on what promises to be a radically new landscape for auto insurance.”
Tesla is sued by drivers over alleged false Autopilot, Full Self-Driving claims (Reuters, September 14, 2022)
On the heels of increased scrutiny from state and federal agencies, as well as recently proposed legislation from state lawmakers, the battle against “autonowashing” and Tesla continued last Wednesday with litigants filing two class actions in California federal court. Both suits allege that Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk have deceitfully advertised Tesla’s driving technology as fully or close to fully automated since 2016, despite knowing that the capabilities of Autopilot and FSD are nothing more than standard SAE Level 2 ADAS.
The Complaint highlighted here alleges that, “[a]lthough these promises have proven false time and time again, Tesla and Musk have continued making them to generate media attention, to deceive consumers into believing it has unrivaled cutting-edge technology, and to establish itself as a leading player in the fast-growing electric vehicle market.”
Interestingly, the main issue at stake in the lawsuit isn’t the actual capability of the technology. Rather, the proposed class members claim that Tesla’s marketing lulls drivers into a false sense of security and autonomous complacency, a phenomenon that has been well documented in the scientific research community for many years.
Tesla expands its Full Self-Driving Beta to 60,000 more owners (Electrek, September 19, 2022)
In the meantime, notwithstanding the mounting pressure from lawmakers, regulators, and litigators, Tesla has expanded its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta program to 160,000 owners in the United States and Canada with driver safety score greater than 80. Tesla’s qualifying safety score is based on a variety of factors including hard braking occurrences, aggressive turning, unsafe distance from other vehicles, and forced Autopilot disengagement.
Because FSD is still considered a level two driver-assist system, as noted above and despite its name, Beta testers must remain vigilant. “Tesla is basically using its customer fleet to test the feature’s capabilities and gather data to move toward its goals of making the system truly self-driving and shifting responsibility for driving safety to Tesla. . . . The FSD Beta is a controversial program due to the potential danger of testing the software with customers on public roads, but Tesla has been fairly careful in the rollout, making gradual expansions to more owners.”