It is right to suggest that telematics insurers need to better understand driver behaviour and price premiums accordingly; but an industry standard is not the way in which to improve this capability. Surely, given this is a nascent technology, which is in only its first stage of evolution, imposing standards would stifle innovation? The means of understanding driver behaviour, and therefore risk, lies not in the hardware, but in the interrogation, manipulation and analysis of data collected from a driver via one of a number of possible hardware devices. The most robust measurements and conclusions are drawn from a comparison with an objective benchmark standard. Within a competitive environment, different approaches will be used, iterated and improved, with a concomitant improvement in the overall capability. It cannot be right to attempt to impose standards at this stage of the maturity of a new technology, and certainly not at the behest of a commercially interested party.
MyDrive Solutions bases all of its analysis on the benchmark of driving capability derived by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). According to RoSPA the safest drivers demonstrate an ability to make decisions that encourage co-operation with others in traffic, rather than conflict. Safe drivers manipulate the space around them to ensure that they can see, can be seen and have escape space available to cope with the mistakes that all drivers inevitably make, including their own. The speeds they choose will be linked to the immediate conditions and the space available giving time to plan and anticipate rather than always react to the dynamic environment of the road. All this will manifest itself in driving behaviour that is smooth, systematic, consistent, unhurried and co-operative.
Analysing driver behaviour on a second-by-second basis will provide a depth of information that can be used against an objective benchmark encompassing the pre-determined driver characteristics. It is objective standards like these that should be used to determine an individual’s driving ability. Telematics insurers that successfully harness this detailed insight to identify good and bad drivers and price policies against an accredited benchmark have a real chance of gaining true competitive advantage.
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