The developers of one of the leading platforms for smartphone-based telematics, TrueMotion, has formed a strategic partnership with Inrix, a leader in connected car services and transportation analytics, to provide contextual driving data to auto insurers to improve driver safety, customer experience, loss costs and risk modeling.
Through its close work with the automotive insurance industry, TrueMotion notes that the frequency and severity of car crashes has been steadily rising for the past decade, with figures for 2016 showing over 36,000 driving-related fatalities in the USA. These increases are attributable to distracted driving, more cars on the road, and an increase of vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
TrueMotion offers auto insurers a mobile telematics platform that enables a variety of next-generation digital programs. Powered by mobile technology, machine learning and data science, its patented smartphone data platform can accurately determine when a person is driving, and reveal their behaviors behind the wheel, including distracted driving. This unique data powers usage-based insurance, distracted driving programs, claims services, and fleet management programs.
Due to the new partnership, auto insurers working with TrueMotion can now incorporate Inrix’s live traffic, incident and road weather data into their digital programs. The addition of Inrix safety alerts also enables insurers to deliver real-time driving notifications to their customers, helping them anticipate dangerous slowdowns, accidents ahead, hazardous road conditions, and other driving risks.
TrueMotion integrates this data into its patented platform and delivers it to auto insurers through an SDK for their self-serve apps or through white label apps. In addition to real-time alerts, insurance carriers can use this contextual road data combined with TrueMotion’s driving and distraction data to understand a driver’s true risk profile.
For example, a person may drive at high speeds, but if they drive at the speed of surrounding traffic, they are less likely to have a high rate of hard braking, a key indicator of risk. Analyzing contextual and distraction driving data together can also help carriers improve model accuracy and better forecast risk.
“Auto insurers can now use driving data to activate a broad array of digital experiences across the customer journey,” said TrueMotion’s CEO, Ted Gramer. “With the addition of Inrix contextual traffic and road safety alert data, our insurance partners can help their customers drive safer with real-time driving alerts, increase customer engagement, and reduce loss costs.”
Kevin Foreman, vice president and general manager of the enterprise sector at Inrix, commented, “Our traffic and weather data adds powerful context to the assessment of risk and driver behavior. Accurate situational context completes the digital view, enabling actuarial, claims, and customer engagement goals to be met in new, quantifiable ways. Our partnership with TrueMotion is a perfect example of how movement data can provide a new lens on a long-standing problems and open opportunities for innovation.”
