Tower Insurance has defended its investment in telematics technology in the light of a new report which says
driverless car developments could see its use being redundant in just a few years.
The report,
Technology in Action – A Roadmap for Insurance Telematics, produced by British analytics company Timetric, indicated there would be huge global growth in telematics products first, but rapidly-moving developments in automated driving could quickly overtake.
The report highlighted companies such as Google, which is testing its self-driving car in the US now, and Volvo, which is claiming it will provide an accident-free driving experience with its new cars by 2020.
But Tower Insurance, who last year launched their SmartDriver app, said the new technology posed no threat to their investment yet.
Mark Savage, Tower’s general manager customer proposition, told
Insurance Business: “Driverless technology is still in an early phase of development.
“Until everyone owns a driverless car, SmartDriver will continue to be a great tool to help drivers better understand their driving behaviour and what they could do to be safer on the road.”
However, he admitted they were keeping a close eye on new developments and working to see how the app could be evolved to adapt to the new technology.
“We’re currently testing further developments of the SmartDriver app and see it as a core part of any future Tower activity in the connected car space.”
He added: “We’re watching with interest any advances that improve driver safety.”
Read more:
Boom then bust for telematics?
