Progressive, Generali Pursue Joint Telematics Research

Europe’s The Generali Group and Progressive Group of Insurance Companies of the U.S., both among the leaders in car insurance telematics, said they have entered into an research and development collaboration to improve their individual data analytics capabilities and foster product offerings.

The two said they will share knowledge in telematics to further innovate their behavioral profiling systems to explore new car telematics products that reward safer drivers and improve driving through personalized customer feedback.

Progressive first introduced its wireless telematics device in 2008. The product, Snapshot, is a voluntary discount program in which drivers can save money on their car insurance by sharing their driving habits with Progressive. The insurer says that more than four million drivers have tried it.

Pat Callahan, Personal Lines president of Progressive Insurance, said that key driving behaviors including actual miles driven, braking, and time of day of driving can provide “more than twice the predictive power of traditional insurance rating variables,” like a driver’s demographic profile, or the year, make and model of the insured vehicle.

“Collaborating internationally with Generali allows us to further expand and deepen our customer insights in order to help safer drivers save even more money through our Snapshot program,” said Callahan.

In 2011 in Europe, Generali introduced a pay-how-you-drive product with Genertel, the group direct insurance company. In mid-2015 Generali acquired full control of MyDrive Solutions, an English start-up founded in 2010 that uses data analytics tools to profile driving styles.

“The collaboration with Progressive allows Generali to accelerate the execution of the strategy in regards to connected insurance and advanced analytics,” said Valter Trevisani, chief insurance officer of Generali.