The encyclopedia · Finance & Accounting · Strategic decision · 2008
Progressive priced car insurance off actual driving, not a model of you.
Progressive's Snapshot plugged into a car's OBD port and recorded how, how much and when people drive, pricing the policy on observed behavior.
Progressive
the move
Auto insurers priced policies with proxies because they could not observe how a person actually drove. That left a lot of risk unpriced and made good drivers subsidise bad ones.
Progressive's Snapshot measures the thing itself. A device plugs into the car's OBD port, where it records how much the car is driven, at what times, and how the driver brakes, then transmits that data. A safe pattern earns a discount on a policy that can keep learning.
It turns insurance from a bet on a profile into a price on observed behavior, and it draws in drivers who know they are safe, because they get a reward for proving it.
why it works
- The device observes the risk driver instead of guessing at it
- Low-risk drivers select into the program and lower the cost
- Pricing on behavior rewards the safe habits insurers could not see
- It collects real data that can refine future underwriting
what transfers
When a buyer's risk is hidden from you, the cheapest fix is not a better guess but a way to measure the behavior; let the customer volunteer evidence and you reward the truth you could not see.
what came after
Progressive scaled Snapshot nationally, and usage-based insurance became a category. Metromile and other entrants priced per-mile, and telematics spread across insurers, while privacy and data-accuracy questions around speed, distraction and location tracking kept the model contested.
references
- Progressive Goes National with Usage-Based 'Snapshot' Car Insurance Program
- Better drivers pay less for car insurance with Snapshot Usage-Based Insurance program
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