There are two broad categories of objects that fall within the category of the Internet of Things: the categories of immovable items and the category of mobile items, represented by the entire automotive industry (from the truck to the bicycle) ; the drone industry; by mobile people and the werable.
Today I will focus in particular on the automotive sector, to understand what it means now, immediately, the IoT for the common man and how this is linked to the insurance industry.
Today, the internet of things in the automotive sector mainly covers three areas:
in b2b2, the main variation is represented by the management and control of the fleet, which is already effective in practice: thanks to the data collected and distributed through the devices on board the corporate fleet (imagine for example the various shipping and delivery companies) the company has real-time details permitting to take decisions quickly and to improve the efficiency of the service, as well as ensure the safety of workers, cars and items transported.
in the consumer environment, the IoT for the automotive industry today primarily mean a thing: black boxes. Italy is in the world among countries with the largest number of black box installed in the corporate fleet (note: according to 2014 data Ania about 3 million). This is also the technology, which is closer to the insurance sector: the main insurance companies today are proposing (in exchange for a discount on the policy) the use of devices, basically for anti-fraud purposes, allowing for example to check the dynamic in case of accidents. For insurance companies this leads to a great advantage: on the one hand allows to make a discount to the customer, on the other introduces an anti-fraud oversight in the vehicle which allows not to pay compensation for the damage, upon the occurrence of certain circumstances (for example, infringe the traffic rules). Black Box reward those who drive properly, this is positive for insurance but also to the citizen who is led to respect traffic rules.
The black box, 2.0 version, is an application of the IoT to the automotive and insurance, very concrete, rapidly deployed and with great impact on people’s lives (the main mission of the IoT is precisely to improve the life of everyone).
It is not necessary to wait for the driverless car (which I’ll discuss shortly) to decrease the number of accidents. We already have the technology capable of transforming the current black box in advanced monitoring and self diagnostic systems. I am referring to predictive diagnostics: currently the warning light system to self-control of a vehicle, informs us about existing damage or malfunction. Many simple precautions (e.g. oil change) that is appropriate to devote to car care, today are suggested by most smart diagnostic systems of cars, or we have to remember, in some cases we are reminded by our service center. With the technology that already exists, predictive diagnostics and scheduled maintenance of the vehicles are possible and significantly improve security, and can be implemented through the black box.
2.0 Black box should be of great interest to the insurance industry, of course. A black box 2.0, it may not just be the antifraud defense of the insurance companies, in the car, but also help the driver to maintain the vehicle to prevent disturbances that can often be the cause of accident. The transition from the 1.0 black box to the 2.0 one, is step changes not only technological, but also cultural and relevant to service, as it leads to a more evolved and mature relationship between insurance company and the client insured.
