New technology is coming that will make driving safer and your car insurance premium cheaper.

New radar based safety systems will decrease the chance of bumper car driving on the roads.

What is the future going to hold in store for us as drivers? 

With the advances in technology being applied to our vehicles, how much longer will it be before all we have to do is type in our destination and the vehicle will drive us there? While driverless cars are not a reality quite yet, thanks to steps in technology our cars are starting to prevent us from being able to have an accident.  If you couldn’t have an accident think about what that would do to your car insurance premium.

What New Safety Features Could Affect Your Car Insurance Premium?

Side curtain airbags, anti-lock brakes and tracking systems are all safety features that you can find in most new cars today and have a direct affect on our car insurance premium. But, none of them compare to what is waiting just around the corner for us as far as new safety features for our vehicles.

Using radar technology, engineers have started to create safety systems in cars that alert us when danger of an accident is present. They can also take control and actually decelerate our vehicle to avoid rear ending someone. 

The radar can tell us when we need to brake harder to avoid hitting someone and it can tell us if there is someone in our blind spot to save us from changing lanes or turning into another car that we didn’t see.  It will be like having our very own NASCAR spotter to help us with those things that we don’t see.

Thanks to smaller car radar systems that can be installed in cars for cheaper than they used to, we are most likely going to be seeing more cars with these types of safety systems on the market here in the United States soon(insurance headlines).

Decrease in Insurance Claims

Per the National Safety Council there are over 2.5 million collisions each year from people rear ending another car. These statistics make rear end accidents the most common type of accidents in the nation and results in increased car insurance premium for the drivers that cause them.

If this new radar safety device in your vehicle prevents you from being able to rear end a person, the insurance claims reported each year are going to come down drastically. There will also be a decrease in sideswiping accidents with having the vehicle able to alert you to someone in your blind spot.

For you, this means a cheaper car insurance premium if your vehicle can prevent you from having an accident because of a decreased chance of accident surcharges being added to your policy.  It can also mean a cheaper car insurance premium for everyone due to decreased rear end accidents from hit-and-run drivers.  The cost of a hit-and-run driver increases the car insurance premium for everyone in a company, if the driver is never caught, so that the insurance company can still make a profit.  The car insurance premium of coverages like uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages are directly affected by the number of hit-and-run drivers in an area and could go down if this radar system actually did decrease those numbers.

Potential Car Insurance Premium Discounts

A technology such as this that would make driving safer by preventing accidents is sure to have some sort of car insurance premium discount associated with it.  However, exactly how they are going to discount the car insurance premium on these cars is what we are going to have to wait and see.  Are companies going to make it as a listed discount along with ABS where in some cases you have to remind your agent that you have them because they don’t put the car insurance premium discount on your policy?

Or are the base rates for the car insurance premium on these vehicles just going to be cheaper? I guess we will just have to wait and find out until they are allowed to be sold in the United States.

A new car insurance program being introduced only charges drivers car insurance premium for the amount of driving they actually do.

With the PAYD program, your insurance company will keep track of your mileage for you.

Would you drive less if your insurance company paid you to? This is the idea behind the pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) program. Your car insurance premium is based on the number of miles that you drive. While it is similar to discounts that are already offered by most insurance companies, the new car insurance premium discount that is being introduced  is more mile detailed.

Pay-as-You-Drive

With the PAYD programs you only pay the car insurance premium for the amount of miles that you drive (hence the name). To participate in this program you have to allow your insurance company to track you either through a device that you plug into your car or through information gathered by your agent as far as your odometer reading.

When you first start your policy you will guestimate how many miles you drive in a year and then your car insurance premium is based on that. If it is more than what you guessed, they will move you into a non-PAYD program. If your mileage is less, some of the insurance companies will refund you the portion of your car insurance premium that you technically didn’t use under this program.

What’s in it for the insurance companies? Simply, the less you use your car, the less chance you have of getting into a car accident that they have to pay out on.

(At this time California is the only state to have approved the insurance regulation on this type of insurance program)

Current Mileage Programs

You might be asking yourself what is the difference between this mileage use program and the one that you already have with your insurance company? The PAYD programs take the mileage estimates and use by 500 mile increments (minimum miles of 5,000).  Your insurance company looks at whether you are driving more or less than a certain number of miles each year, usually 7,500.

So if you tell them that you don’t drive a certain vehicle very much they will place you in the under 7,500 category.  If you commute 45 miles each way to work, they will put you in the above 7,500 mile category.

The other difference is that they don’t track your mileage, if you go over the 7,500 they would never know.  At the same time if you go under the 7,500 I wouldn’t hold my breath for a car insurance premium refund.

Benefits of the Program

Per Dave Jones, the California Insurance Commissioner, the PAYD programs are good for both the environment and also to reduce road congestion. The idea behind this is that if you are getting money back or cheaper car insurance premiums for not driving, you won’t drive.  If this program could be extended further to other states and drivers, the decrease of drivers on the road would have an impact in a number of ways.

One, less drivers on the road means a decreased chance of a car accident. Two, less car exhaust is always good for the environment. Three, less drivers on the road does also mean less traffic to have to fight through.

Progressive shows how you can easily package together multiple lines of insurance in their “bundler”, just make sure to keep your hands out of it.

Summary

Commercial opens at the click of a mouse on the Progressive Logo to a man asking a question.

Man: What it that?

Flo: Oh, we call it ‘the bundler”. Let’s say you need home and auto insurance, you give us your information once online (Flo pushes BUNDLER button and the Bundler merges the home and auto boxes in the bundler together) and we give you a discount on both.

Man: Great.

Flo and the man look over to the side and there is a Progressive employee that is fumbling with something because he has boxes for hands.

Flo: Did I mention no hands in the bundler?

Flo waves at the employee and he waves back with one of his box hands, dropping what he was finally able to pick up.

Change to Progressive logo and vehicle.

Announcer: Bundling and saving made easy, now that’s Progressive. Call or click today.

Point of the Commercial

Writing multiple lines of insurance for a client and offering discounts on each policy for doing so is not a new concept. Almost every insurance company that writes in multiple lines offers this and they collect the same information all at the same time that Progressive is claiming they do.

What Progressive is trying to do is to make it look easier to get a quote on multiple lines of insurance with them as compared to getting quotes from other insurance companies.

What They Want you to Do

The commercial is targeting potential clients that have multiple lines of insurance that they may need to buy. The commercial only covered the auto and home insurance, but there are many lines of insurance that they write that you can bundle together.

Also from how the commercial opens up with a mouse click and ends with “click today”, Progressive is encouraging you to get your quotes online.

My Opinion

While this one is funny, Flo doesn’t seem to be her usual, over-the-top, perky self; which really makes the Progressive commercials for me. This commercial is also one of two versions that Progressive made of the same bundler commercial.

 The other version shows a half-horse/half-man Progressive employee that was created as a result of the bundler.  I find that the “no hands in the bundler” one is the funnier of the two and also seems more realistically humorous as compare to getting a man and a horse in the bundler.

Giving this one a thumbs up/thumbs down.

Drivers in the state of New York have some of the highest mandatory insurance coverages in the nation.

Once you live within the New York border your insurance requirements increase tremendously.

Each state that drivers live in have their own separate mandatory insurance coverage that they have to have. Some states have no bodily injury liability required, but instead require personal injury protection coverage. Other states have mandatory liability limits so low they are laughable.

New York on the other hand has so many required coverages to be able to drive that the state leaves little for you to add on your New York auto insurance yourself.

Mandatory New York Liability Coverage

New York auto insurance requirements include having to carry the minimum of $10,000 in liability coverage for damage done to the property of others. You are also required to carry the minimum limit of $25,000 in liability coverage for each person that is injured in a wreck that you cause and a minimum of $50,000 total in liability for all injuries that you cause.

While the minimums required on New York auto insurance for the injuries are set higher than most states and are adequate for most injuries, the property damage is questionably low.  If you were to total someone else’s vehicle chances are the $10,000 won’t be enough to cover it.

Mandatory New York PIP Coverage

Just like in the state of Florida, New York auto insurance requires that you carry personal injury protection (PIP) coverage on your insurance. This coverage is for injuries that happen to yourself and the passengers in your vehicle during an accident. PIP coverage can also extend to injuries that are obtained by members of your family in other vehicle accidents and as pedestrians.

Mandatory New York UIM Coverage

New York auto insurance also requires that drivers carry uninsured motorist coverage (UIM) on their policies. The UIM coverage required is for bodily injury only and not property damage. This coverage protects you in the case that an uninsured or underinsured motorist hits you and you are injured.

New York Car Insurance for Rentals

When you rent a car, in most states, you have the option of buying the insurance from the rental car company or just depending on your own insurance to kick in if anything happens to the rental.  The laws governing New York auto insurance however, are different. They require that the rental car company extend you the mandatory insurance coverages that are required in the state.

If you were to get into an accident with the rental car, your insurance policy would act as extra coverage on top of the required New York auto insurance that the rental car company is required to provide for you. Keep in mind though that the insurance that the rental car company has to provide for you does not cover the damages that may happen to the car that they rent to you.

It is best to have something in place in case that happens such as:

• Coverage from your own personal car insurance policy that will extend to cover damages to rental cars that you drive.
• Car insurance coverage for rental cars under the credit card that you use to rent the car.
• Purchasing a policy through the rental car company to cover damage that may happen to their car.

Distracted driving leads to hundreds of thousands of car accidents each year and will also lead to higher insurance premiums for you.

Distracted driving is dangerous to you and everyone around you.

You only took your eyes off the road for a few seconds to see who texted you. Next thing you know, you are in a ditch on the side of the road.  What happened?

Taking your eyes or mind off of your driving is dangerous not only for you, but for everyone around you. Your car can’t control itself and when you stop controlling it to pay attention to something else you end up in an accident. Distracted driving accidents like this leads to thousands of fatalities a year. 

What is Distracted Driving?

Distracted driving is anytime your eyes, hands or mind wander away from concentrating on your driving. The current distracted driving culprit that is under heavy fire is cell phone use. Talking on your cell phone takes away two of the three things you need to driver safely (hands and mind) and if you are texting it takes away all three (hands, mind and eyes). However, cell phone use is not the only source of distracted driving; you can also be distracted by the following:

• Falling asleep at the wheel
• Daydreaming
• Being emotional stressed out
• Changing music
• Talking to passengers
• Grooming (putting on make-up, fixing your hair, flossing your teeth, etc.)
• Eating or drinking
• Reading (maps, directions, books, love letter, etc.)

Why is Distracted Driving Dangerous?

No matter how much you say you can drive and be distracted, the statistics point to the opposite. The flat out reality is that distracted driving causes accidents.

Just in 2009, there were 448,000 people injured in car accidents caused by distracted driving. In addition, there were 5,474 fatalities as well from distracted driving accidents (DISTRACTION.GOV).

Are you against drunk driving, but still feel that distracted driving is not all that bad? A study done by the University of Utah concluded that using a cell phone of any kind while driving will make you react as slow as a driver that has a BAC (blood alcohol limit) of .08. This is the threshold of being legally too drunk to drive, in all states.

Distracted Driving and Your Auto Insurance

Like we have been talking about, distracted driving causes accidents and in most cases they are “at-fault” accidents. At-fault accidents add surcharge points to the record of the distracted driver which leads to an increase in their insurance premium. Get enough of these points and your current insurance company will place you in high risk insurance (with extremely high premiums) or they will cancel your policy because you have become too big of a risk to cover.

Once you have found yourself cancelled for this reason, most other insurance companies will laugh you off of the phone when you call them to try and get new insurance. You will be left with no other option other than “forced placed” insurance.

This field of insurance is where the government “forces” insurance companies to insure drivers that they don’t want to. Accordingly you will be charge so much for this insurance that taking public transit starts to look better and better each month.

As a former underwriter for this field of insurance, it was nothing to see insurance premiums run around $5,000 for 6 months. The highest premium seen was $13,000 for just 6 months of coverage (that’s the price of a new car just for 1 year of insurance coverage).

You may think that I am going overboard here, but in reality whatever you are doing that causes your distracted driving marks you as a dangerous driver and is a habit. A habit is something you do over and over again and can take up to 21 days to stop. So do yourself a favor and start working on ending whatever is causing your distracted driving before you seriously hurt someone and you end up with insanely high auto insurance premiums.