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ingenie featured in The Guardian

The Guardian published an article, Black box car insurance: a young driver’s new best friend behind the dashboard, discussing the rise of telematics-based motor insurance. One of our customers, Alfie Thorn was featured talking about his experience with ingenie.

“Londoner Alfie Thorn, 18, has been using a telematics black box provided by ingenie for 15 months to reduce his premium and help improve his driving skills. The University of London student, who lives at home and uses his Ford Ka to visit family and friends, has been given feedback by the insurer’s app that he needs to focus on his cornering and braking, especially if he wants to reduce his premiums even further during the course of the year.”

On his decision to use ingenie’s black box:

“I chose to have a black box in my car as this was the cheapest type of insurance,” he says. “Price is very important to me as I’m a student – without the black box option I wouldn’t have been able to drive. The next cheapest insurer was around £800 more a year.”

“I think it’s good that I am being monitored, as I find myself being conscious about how I am driving – for example, my speed or braking. Also, the fact that I get driving feedback about every 10 days, and my policy reviewed every quarter, means I can easily reflect on areas of my driving that need improvement. Throughout my first year I saved just under £300 through good driving, and saved £700 when I renewed again, which was half the original price of my insurance.”

There is no doubt that telematics is becoming more widely adopted. The British Insurance Broker’s Association (Biba) recently revealed that almost 455,000 people in the UK are now using this technology, an increase of 40% compared to the year before.

“This technology can also protect policyholders from false accusations being made against them. Richard King says: “One of our young drivers was recently arrested and accused of being involved in a serious crime. We were able to prove within moments that he wasn’t near the scene of the crime and that his number plates had been cloned.””

Discussing the potential for telematics insurance to tie in with other connected car benefits, ingenie CEO Richard King gave his predictions for the next few years:

“Within five years, predicts ingenie, insurers won’t just be giving feedback on how someone is driving, they will also be able to see the condition of the vehicle and give warnings to drivers when their car needs a service or if the battery is about to go flat. Insurers will soon be able to collaborate with motoring organisations so that if you break down, they will be able to use GPS tracking to locate you, as well as use the tech to remotely diagnose what has gone wrong.”

Read ingenie’s blog here.