By Carla McDonald, Senior Vertical Market Manager at LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Safety technology in vehicles is developing at a rapid pace, and U.K. insurance providers are
coming under increasing pressure to understand exactly how these advances impact claims and, in turn, could influence pricing. ADAS features exist to avoid or reduce the seriousness of collisions - as the features become more common, the dynamics of claims will change. For insurance providers this could have a material impact on the bottom line.
It may be a surprise to learn that the U.K. leads Europe in ADAS-equipped cars. Based on our analysis of more than 1.4 million vehicles across Europe, on average there are 8 safety features per vehicle in the UK car park – leading Spain which has six on average and Italy which has four.
The fact that this may be news to most insurance providers gets to the heart of the problem. Until recently, the market has had no real way of knowing how a specific car is equipped. This is because each ADAS system can have a different name, functionality or calibration, making it hard to use in pricing and underwriting.
The increasing penetration of ADAS in the U.K. car parc that we have identified, along with predictions that Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) could prevent 47,000 serious accidents (2019-30) and save 3,900 lives , really underline the value adding ADAS data to the risk assessment process for pricing and underwriting.
Making this a reality started with the creation of a common classification of ADAS from millions of lines of car manufacturer’s data, so that the features of a car and their relative performance can be understood and used by insurance providers at a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) level.
Trim-level information isn’t sufficient, as some of these features are optional extras.
We must also understand how the feature behaves. Is it there to warn the driver, is it there to assist the driver, is it there to take control of the vehicle? We also need to understand how the feature performs. Is it there to avoid a collision, is there to reduce the severity of a collision, is it there to sustain safe driving conditions?
With that understanding, we then needed to start building insight on how these features work together or in isolation to reduce insurance claims frequency and severity.
This led to the creation of ‘Core Features groups’ of the ADAS features fitted to a vehicle that are found to deliver a reduction in claims frequency. These may protect the front of the vehicle such as with Forward Collison Mitigation, the side of the vehicle such as Blind Spot Warning, or the rear of the vehicle with Rear Collision Warning. At a high level, the Core Features can help place what is in effect a ‘safety bubble’ around the vehicle. 64% of the 2.5million cars we analysed in Europe were equipped with one of these core safety features and are therefore less likely to have an insurance claim. As technology develops, this percentage is expected to increase.
Insurance providers also need to understand how vehicles compare. This is best achieved through a Rating Indicator, developed by LexisNexis as part of LexisNexis® Vehicle Build, which gives a value from 1-5 in terms of reducing claims frequency based on all the features on a specific vehicle. The higher the number, the better the performance in terms of reducing claims frequency.
We found that 57% of vehicles analysed in Europe had an ADAS rating indicator of 1 or higher. Furthermore, there was a 14% reduction in loss ratio when the vehicle had an ADAS rating indicator of 1 or more.
This type of enrichment will be business critical in the short term as ADAS becomes more prevalent in the driving behaviour of newly manufactured vehicles.
LexisNexis® Vehicle Build has been tested in the market over the past year to help insurance providers understand and evaluate the specific standard and optional ADAS fitted to a vehicle at a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) level. Insurance providers can now bring ADAS data into the quoting processes to improve loss and expense ratios and support competitive pricing.
The more insurance providers can understand about the specific ADAS fitments to the car, the more accurate their pricing. This is not only fairer for customers who have invested in ADAS-equipped vehicles but having this insight also helps prepare for a future in which cars will have increasing levels of autonomy.
ADAS features represent stages 1 and 2 in vehicle autonomy and are critical steps towards
the development and advancement of automated vehicles and systems such as Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS).
In April 2021 , the UK Government initiated its consultation seeking to gain insight into methods of permitting safe use of automated vehicles on U.K. roads as it looks to maintain its position as a global leader in vehicle autonomy.
As Transport Minister Rachel Maclean has said: “Automated technology could make driving safer, smoother and easier for motorists and the UK should be the first country to see these benefits, attracting manufacturers to develop and test new technologies.”
As technology is advancing and drivers are becoming more familiar with ADAS, we see a distinct shift in how certain features evolve from warning the driver to active mitigation as systems move from passive to dynamic capability. The insurance market will need to keep pace with these developments, and ADAS data is the first step on that road.
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