INTERVIEW
SG’s first AIpowered pay-perkm car insurance The Carro IQ device uses data analytics to easily calculate the vehicle’s lifespan.
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nsurers usually solve multiple pain points when it comes to owning a car with multiple solutions. However, as the needs of consumers change, they demand more flexible and affordable services. Rising to the challenge of creating a solution with just one product, the Southeast Asia car marketplace launched Covered. Covered is Singapore’s first artificial intelligence (AI)driven pay-per-kilometre insurance and maintenance plan. It aims to offer drivers tailor-made insurance premiums and maintenance coverage according to their lifestyles, enabling them to get a car insurance plan better suited to their needs. Distributed by Genie Financial Services, a subsidiary of Carro, and underwritten by NTUC Income, Covered is available for all types of cars including electric vehicles (EV). It is fully digital and contactless. Customers simply need to fill up an information form through the website to receive a Covered quotation and pay the annual coverage fee of S$150 upon acceptance of the quote. They will then be sent the installation guide and the Carro IQ device, an onboard telematics unit, handled by Carro’s technology partner, Quantum Inventions. Once the device is installed, the device will begin to track the vehicle’s odometer data, which will be used to calculate usage-based insurance and maintenance charges. Data is collected, processed and forwarded by QI’s scalable Fleet Mobility & Data Platform (FMDP) that ensures fast and accurate calculation of various information and alerts. Rates per kilometre are determined by the applicant’s age, type of vehicle and driving experience. The average rate is 12 cents/km. To get to know Covered a little more, Insurance Asia had a one-on-one chat with Aaron Tan, CEO and founder of Carro. How did this product come to be? The collaboration started with NTUC income wanting to launch an all-inclusive solution for its customers. Covered was launched to be Singapore’s first usage-based insurance plan that uses AI-driven pay-per-kilometre plan. The product covers insurance per kilometre and maintenance per kilometre, which is the first of its kind in the market. With the help of AI technology, the driving kilometre of a car’s lifespan and how much a driver will spend on maintenance can be easily predicted. The reality is that many drivers often end up paying more than what they need or will use during the car’s lifespan. Carro saw this challenge as an opportunity to create 16 INSURANCE ASIA
Aaron Tan, CEO and founder of Carro
a solution that can solve all problems in one product— from insurance, maintenance to covering wear and tear, which is not common in other plans. Traditionally, insurance plans simply cover the warranty of the car, but our goal with Covered is to provide customers with a convenient, transparent, and hassle-free product that can be tailored to their lifestyle.
Covered aims to offer drivers tailor-made insurance premiums and maintenance coverage according to their lifestyles
How did NTUC Income become involved in the Covered project? NTUC Income needed a partner with the right technical capabilities to tailor their insurance premiums and maintenance coverage according to customer’s lifestyles on a digital platform. This is where Carro comes in, where we leverage technology and data analytics to enable customers to enjoy more significant savings by tracking their mileage and calculating their insurance premiums for the month. In addition, NTUC Income required a partner who can easily adopt its digital transformation office into an existing system. There are not many companies in the market that can integrate directly into APIs, like what NTUC Income is doing. Even if companies have such a complex system, they don’t have the channels to market such an innovative product.
