The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sent a letter to the head of Google’s self-driving car program on February 4th stating according to federal safety standards, a self-driving or autonomous vehicle’s software could be considered a “driver.” This announcement, along with a couple of other items that have come to light in the past few weeks provide an interesting perspective on autonomous vehicles and car insurance.
How do car insurance companies handle claims when one of their clients are struck by a driver who doesn’t have car insurance? Most people never think about this, but I see it several times a year as the Dallas / Fort Worth area has historically had the highest percentage of drivers without car insurance, or uninsured motorists, in Texas. The only time most people think about this after they’ve been hit by an uninsured driver.
House Bill 2305 was passed by the Texas Legislation on June 14, 2013 and went into effect on March 1, 2015. The bill did away with the familiar inspection sticker most Texas drivers were accustomed to receiving when we had our cars and trucks inspected each year. The goal, starting March 1st of last year was to combine the inspection sticker with our vehicle registration sticker.
Is car insurance more expensive or less expensive for smaller car as compared to larger cars? This would seem to be an easy question to answer; the bigger the car, the more expensive it is. Therefore it must cost more to insure larger cars than smaller ones, right?!
Christmas arrives next week. In addition to knocking out the shopping for those who haven’t finished it yet, many people will be visiting friends and family or packing in a family get away before school starts back up. In many cases, this means, people will be renting a car. The big question I get from clients when travel is about to take place is whether or not their car insurance covers a rental car.
I had lunch on Wednesday with a client. We caught up with each other, discussed how our businesses are doing, and then I reviewed his current insurance coverage and potential changes he should consider. His business is growing, and that means he’s transitioning in how insurance is approached. In these cases, it means insurance changes from a tool that protects cars and homes to providing financial protection. The question we discussed was how much car insurance is needed to protect him and his family.
The holiday season is here and with it comes holiday parties, lights, decorations, and of course, shopping at malls and online. In addition to the shopping centers and malls being crowded with shoppers, there are people looking to cash in on what you just purchased for the special people in your life.
It’s an interesting question isn’t it?! Some may think it’s gender based and guess men pay more than women. Others may think it’s location based and guess people in big cities pay more than people in rural communities. While both of guesses are correct, they’re not the right answer. Teen drivers, or their parents, pay more for car insurance than any other group.
The internet of things and connected cars made a splash in Dallas area media last week. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that AT&T is headquartered here! Connected cars are here and they are growing rapidly, even without a “killer app.” While AT&T has over 100 million customers using wireless, video, broadband, and even land lines services, the big growth potential appears to be connected cars.
Have you ever heard of Andy House or Ted Lilly? You may have heard of Ted Lilly if you follow baseball closely but most people may not recognize Andy House’s name. Here’s a clue, they have something in common, and it’s not sports, the schools they attended, or where they were born. Still not sure? The answer is they both committed insurance fraud with their vehicles.
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