Driveway Software Enters Insurance Industry with Smartphone and Cloud-Based Telematics Platform

San Francisco-based Driveway Software, a provider of smartphone-based telematics solutions for the usage-based insurance market, announced the official introduction and immediate availability of its SmartUBI Platform, a complete insurance telematics platform which includes a smartphone usage-based insurance (UBI) application, and cloud based analytics and portals.

Driveway’s SmartUBI Platform offers carriers looking to enter the usage-based insurance market a cost-effective and quick deployment solution, putting telematics within reach of any size carrier to take advantage of this maturing and growing market segment.

Driveway Software makes entry to the usage-based insurance market both affordable and easy by leveraging the insured’s own smartphone to monitor driving behavior and capture data. With the insured’s driving data and preliminary analytics in hand, combined with SmartUBI’s cloud-based analytics capabilities, carriers are better able to determine individual driver risk scores to help make the most informed risk and premium decisions.

Before Driveway, carriers looking to offer usage-based (AKA telematics-based) insurance products were forced to rely on costly and proprietary devices installed in each insured vehicle, with only the largest carriers able to afford the technology investment and ongoing maintenance.

CTO of Driveway Software, Igor Katsman, commenting on Driveway’s introduction in the insurance market said, “With over 150 million smartphones now in use and some industry analysts reporting that 75 percent of carriers believe that UBI will fundamentally alter the auto insurance industry, we believe our timing in entering the insurance market couldn’t be better.”

According to telematics industry consultant and president of Kairos Solutions, Dave Huber, “Similar to the adoption cycle of credit-based insurance scoring, risk scoring using telematics is today’s competitive advantage for the early adopter auto carriers and will quickly become a necessity for every carrier to remain competitive in the auto insurance market.”

Huber continued, “With Driveway’s SmartUBI Platform, carriers can now easily and affordably adopt driver scoring to base risk decisions and auto insurance premiums on individual driver facts rather than broad demographics, credit scores, and assumptions.”

Driveway CEO Jake Diner added, “While the Driveway name might be new to the insurance industry, we have been around for some time offering our smartphone app to consumers with over 150,000 drivers already using our software. Our low cost of entry, proven application, analytics capabilities, telematics expertise, and easy deployment offer an attractive value proposition to any size carrier looking to offer usage-based insurance. “

The SmartUBI Platform and capabilities include:

• Customized smartphone UBI app for the collection of driver data;
• Includes driving visualization, driver feedback, gamification and social layer
• Preliminary analysis within the app to produce a driving score with guidelines customized for each carrier;
• Driving data uploaded to Driveway’s SmartUBI cloud servers for a more detailed analysis against a broader data set; and
• Driving data, including scores, transferred from cloud servers to carrier’s system via SmartUBI’s carrier portal for use in underwriting, pricing, rewards, incentives, pay-as-you-go billing, etc.

Source: Driveway Software Inc.