View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2017/04/03/446575.htm
Insurance tech startup Slice Labs has created a pay-per-use rideshare insurance app and is now testing the technology with a select set of rideshare drivers.
Plans call for testing the technology and algorithms with a group of 50 people “in multiple locations,” according to a Slice Labs spokesperson.
Tests are necessary because technology and pricing are complicated by time, distance, location and other sensors in the phone.
Slice will then roll out the app and actually issue policies in one state toward the end of the 2017 second quarter, depending on how the tests go.
Slice bills its product as a first-of-its-kind platform that protects the rideshare drivers while covering the liability associated with the commercial activity of ridesharing. The Slice policy is issued from the time the driver goes online and starts work to the time the driver goes offline at the end of a shift—from app on to app off.
The market has untapped demand. Two related surveys found that most rideshare drivers don’t have the insurance they need when they are conducting business, but more are interested in the coverage.
Also, insurers including GEICO, USAA, American Family Insurance, Allstate and Farmers Insurance have started in recent months offering or testing rideshare insurance in select markets. These policies are not on-demand but are typically endorsements or extensions of policies designed to ensure drivers have coverage until they accept a ride, during the ride itself, or both.
This is the second insurance product for Slice Labs. Last October the firm launched its on-demand insurance product for homeshare hosts who participate in platforms such as AirBnb, HomeAway, OneFineStay and FlipKey. The commercial insurance policy can be purchased via app or online, and it covers the time period hosts rent their homes, whether for a day, a week or other timeframe.
The homeshare product is now being offered in six states on a limited basis: Iowa, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Texas and Washington. Homeshare hosts in those states can get access to the Slice offerings on an individual basis. Slice is doing what it calls a “preview release” and taking a “grassroots approach,” meaning Slice workers will “onboard” individual customers into the process and get feedback from these customers along the way.
Slice Labs, which is based in New York, disclosed in March 2016 an initial $3.9 million of seed funding from XL Catlin’s XL Innovate and Horizon Ventures. Tusk Ventures is also a backer. Last July, Munich Re signed on as a coverage partner.
Slice and Munich Re have agreed to an ongoing rollout program of products and territories with Slice creating the technology platform to deliver unique products directly to the consumer. The Slice platform includes automated underwriting rules agreed upon by Munich Re. Service and processing of claims will are handled by Slice.
Source: Slice Labs