Taiwan-based insurtech firm Jarvish has developed a “smart” motorcycle helmet to track rider behaviour and reward safe motorcyclists with better insurance prices.
Motorcycles are the most common mode of transportation in Asia, where there are over 400 million motorcyclists. There are just 50 million in the rest of the world.
Jarvish’s smart helmet has sensors that track speed, braking, turning, time and destination of travel, and even external factors such as traffic. The data gathered is then used to work out the rider’s motorcycle insurance premium.
“If we can monitor the rider and understand the behaviour, we can evaluate the risk,” Jarvish co-founder and chief technology officer Younger Liang told Forbes. “If you can rank the risk, you can score accordingly to give the user a different pricing proposal.”
Liang cited studies that said insurance premium discounts are an effective incentive for individuals to modify their driving behaviour to be safer.
Even with governments requiring the use of helmets, the risk of dying in a motorcycle accident is still 20-times higher than in a four-wheeled vehicle, according to a study by the European Commission.
By using telematics technology in their helmets, Jarvish seeks to rethink the traditional insurance model.
Related stories:
Trillium launches data management solution for telematics-based insurance
AXA Affin launches telematics motor insurance solution
New insurance telematics twist
