This car insurance monitors your driving and sets your premium accordingly

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One of the nation's largest insurers is beginning the rollout of a behavior-based driving insurance product. Dubbed IntelliDrive via Connected Car, Travelers believes the new product will benefit safe drivers beginning with customers in Pennsylvania and Illinois.

But will drivers consent to having their driving behavior monitored in real-time?

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IntelliDrive via Connected Car uses driving data related to factors like braking, acceleration, speed, and time of day to immediately calculate a customer's IntelliDrive score, which is then used to develop their personalized insurance premium quote. Travelers has partnered with data analytics firm LexisNexis, which will provide the driving data from cars that are enrolled in the program. 

I connected with Joe Meisinger, Vice President of Personal Insurance Product at Travelers Insurance, who told me the service will benefit conscientious drivers in a number of ways.

"With IntelliDrive via Connected Vehicles, safe driving customers can benefit from savings right away instead of waiting until renewal," Meisinger says. "Safe driving habits can lead to savings of up to 30%, while riskier driving habits may result in a higher premium, which encourages safe driving and offers savings to customers who do so. This program focuses on a more personalized rate based on users' safe driving habits."

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"IntelliDrive via Connected Vehicles makes enrolling in telematics easy," Meisinger stresses. "If a customer opts in, Travelers will simply use vehicle-level data to influence their insurance premium based on driving behaviors captured by the vehicle. If the data reflects safe driving performance, customers can be rewarded right away." 

All of this underscores the transitional moment we're in across the personal transportation paradigm. The advent of self-driving cars introduces new complexities into the picture, although Travelers believes the current insurance infrastructure is well-suited to addressing these changes.

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