IMS (Insurance & Mobility Solutions), the leading global vehicle and driving data business, has signed a pan-European strategic partnership with leading automotive OEM data provider, High Mobility.
The partnership comes as interest in OEM embedded telematics surges among UK and European insurers, in particular how new data points can deliver additional benefit for risk profiling and claims analytics when combined with existing data streams from aftermarket telemetry, such as smartphone-as-a-sensor.
Founded in 2013 and based in Berlin, Germany, High Mobility is a next generation car data provider, and already works with 18 OEM brands including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Renault, Dacia, Toyota, Lexus, Mini, Audi, Porsche and the Stellantis group.
With 10 years of experience in the Connected Car industry High Mobility has been able to establish itself as a trustworthy technical market leader. Choosing to focus on the optimisation of the delivery and consumption of data instead of creating their own insurance or mobility products.
IMS CEO Paul Stacy said the partnership is a direct response to ‘ongoing dialogue’ his team is having with UK and European insurers who are looking for new ways of obtaining customer risk insight using OEM data in concert with IMS’s smartphone-based telematics platforms.
Stacy said new and unique data insights can be obtained from OEM embedded sources, albeit there is some distance to go before OEM telemetry data can become the default option for UBI and broader connected motor insurance propositions. “Our partnership with High Mobility has been created to give insurers an opportunity to better understand the art of the possible both today and for the future – and for OEMs to better understand what the insurance market needs.”
“I’m convinced there is an important and growing role for OEM in-car data for insurers, and now is the right time to understand the opportunities it presents. We’re also reaching the point where practical experimentation is possible, and our aim with High Mobility is to make that both accessible and viable.”
“Looking ahead, we want to help insurers understand how some of the unique data points that are available from OEM-embedded telemetry can throw new light on driver risk. For example, being able to monitor certain in-vehicle events and then correlate them with data collected through smartphone will create powerful new risk factors which have, until now, been unavailable. Blending telematics data derived from different sensor types in this way opens up new horizons.”
This perspective is particularly relevant considering recent findings from Thatcham Research in the UK and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US. Studies suggest that many drivers are either turning off in-car safety systems or becoming too over-reliant on them – meaning that systems designed for collision avoidance could be indirectly contributing to road traffic accidents. “Real-time OEM data can illuminate these worrying trends and allow insurers to build rating strategies around them”, said Stacy.
Commenting on behalf of High Mobility, Katharina Roecker, Lead Manager of Strategic Projects and Customer Development, said: “We are excited about the evident synergy that exists between ourselves and IMS in how we view the future of connected motor insurance. We are looking forward to showcasing our combined proposition to insurers across Europe and the UK”.
The OEM data marketplace sector has seen some notable failures in recent times, but Katharina says High Mobility’s technology focus and concentration on core use cases like insurance are the key to its sustainability.
“Many players previously overestimated or over-promised what they could deliver and did not satisfactorily resolve critical issues like customer consent management. We are focused on moving OEM data use to being a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’, for insurers and their customers.”
Paul Stacy concluded: “Insurers need an approach that turns OEM data into practically useful insights. We believe that joining forces with High Mobility brings this exciting and transformative opportunity a big step closer.”
Interested auto insurers and other parties can learn more detail about this partnership by watching IMS and High Mobility’s announcement interview below, or by contacting IMS at www.ims.tech/contact
