As a product manager that has devoted a 30+ year career to pricing of insurance, I disagree completely that people like me have shockingly little incentive to care how our algorithms determine who pays what for insurance. It is unfortunate that the conventional wisdom seems to be that insurance companies do what they can to charge the most for insurance. That is silly and a terrible business strategy.
My job is to grow my company as much as possible within the bounds of our combined ratio targets. If our rates are too high such that nobody is willing to by our product, we won’t grow. If we don’t grow, there is no profit. In the end, the right price to charge for any product winds up being the price the consumer is willing to pay. I care deeply how our “algorithms” are accepted by our customers.
“Yet tragic as such accidents might be, I have a hard time caring.” “I don’t care because the self-driving car companies have to care for me.” What tragically short-sighted and horribly insensitive comments. This ranks right up there with Stalin’s “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”
….unless the driver was excluded, or unless the car was being used as a livery vehicle, or unless the other driver lives in the household and regularly uses the vehicle but isn’t listed on the policy and doesn’t have their own policy, or unless it’s a UM claim, or unless it’s a dealer vehicle, or if there’s a contract stating otherwise (e.g. rental cars), or …. …. … …
As a product manager that has devoted a 30+ year career to pricing of insurance, I disagree completely that people like me have shockingly little incentive to care how our algorithms determine who pays what for insurance. It is unfortunate that the conventional wisdom seems to be that insurance companies do what they can to charge the most for insurance. That is silly and a terrible business strategy.
My job is to grow my company as much as possible within the bounds of our combined ratio targets. If our rates are too high such that nobody is willing to by our product, we won’t grow. If we don’t grow, there is no profit. In the end, the right price to charge for any product winds up being the price the consumer is willing to pay. I care deeply how our “algorithms” are accepted by our customers.
“Yet tragic as such accidents might be, I have a hard time caring.” “I don’t care because the self-driving car companies have to care for me.” What tragically short-sighted and horribly insensitive comments. This ranks right up there with Stalin’s “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”
Thankfully this is just an op-ed from Bloomberg and not actually someone from IJ saying these things. But yeah, it reeks of insensitivity,
Liability follows the Owner
….unless the driver was excluded, or unless the car was being used as a livery vehicle, or unless the other driver lives in the household and regularly uses the vehicle but isn’t listed on the policy and doesn’t have their own policy, or unless it’s a UM claim, or unless it’s a dealer vehicle, or if there’s a contract stating otherwise (e.g. rental cars), or …. …. … …