(Image source: Luminar website.)
Luminar (Orlando, Fla.), a global automotive technology company, and Swiss Re (Zurich), have announced a new exclusive partnership. The first step of the joint initiative is to analyze and quantify the on-road performance and safety improvements of consumer and commercial vehicles equipped with Luminar’s lidar and proactive safety technologies, for both the industry and Luminar’s new insurance program it plans to offer, according to a Luminar statement. “Saving lives is our primary goal and we can democratize our technology to help more people by establishing a lower total cost of ownership of their vehicles,” the statement says.
Austin Russell, Founder and CEO, Luminar.
Luminar says the objective of the testing is to validate accident prevention capabilities that are expected to substantially reduce insurance claims, which in turn creates an opportunity to lead to substantial reduction in cost of insurance for consumers that drive Luminar-equipped vehicles. Swiss Re will collaborate exclusively with Luminar as part of this initiative. The data collected and analyzed by Swiss Re will be distributed to Luminar as well as made available to Swiss Re’s clients that include major insurance providers across the globe.
“Reduction in accidents and lives saved with Luminar-equipped vehicles will naturally drive lower cost of car insurance and savings to consumers,” comments Austin Russell, Founder and CEO, Luminar. “Just as the introduction of electric vehicles have reduced the cost of energy to the consumer, Luminar-equipped cars can reduce the cost of insurance. We’re collaborating with Swiss Re in order to accelerate this process and give consumers the economic credit they deserve.”
Luminar reports that it is launching its own insurance initiative in parallel headed by Alex Tsetsenekos, whose team successfully led the creation and deployment of Tesla’s insurance program. Luminar Insurance is expected to be available to consumers of production vehicle models equipped with Luminar beginning in the U.S. next year, with the opportunity to provide substantial discounts to consumers while also capturing the safety savings.
Russell Higginbotham, CEO Swiss Re Solutions.
More Accurate Price Models
“Swiss Re’s mission is to make the world more resilient so we’re delighted to partner with Luminar on a project that can make our roads safer,” comments Russell Higginbotham, CEO Swiss Re Solutions. “By capturing tech advancements and their impacts on road safety we can deliver more accurate risk models, pricing competitiveness and risk knowledge for Luminar-equipped vehicles to our clients—insurance providers.”