Even if you haven’t had an accident in years, your auto insurance rates are likely to have continued to rise. How can that be when every year the auto manufacturers are claiming that cars are safer and less prone to an accident? Is Technology increasing insurance rates?
The rate for the average California driver has been on the rise since 2011. Rates have climbed from their 2011 average of $1,190 a year to a 2019 rate of $1,962. That’s an average rate increase of 64.8% over those 9 years.
Why Are Insurance Rates Rising?
The increases are due largely to distracted driving, huge weather events, and most surprisingly, the safety features installed to lower our risk of accidents and our insurance. That’s right, I said, “The features installed to drive your rates down, have actually increased your rates.”
The safty features are driving up our rates because, all of the sensor, cameras and computers called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS ) are expensive to replace, repair and to recalibrate after an accident.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety commissioned researchers from the University of Iowa to survey drivers who recently purchased a 2016 or 2017 model-year vehicle with ADAS technologies. Researchers evaluated drivers’ opinions, awareness and understanding of these technologies and found that most did not know or understand the limitations of the systems.
Safety Technology Add’s to Repair Cost.
The customer appears to struggle to understand the limitations of the ADAS systems and they rely on them too much, decreasing their awareness of what is going on around them and increasing accidents. Studies are finding that the average driver is willing to give up too much control of their vehicle to the new technology.
While the cost of replacing, repairing and recalibrating the new technology in your car is increasing your rates, nothing is effecting accidents more than distracted driving. It appears the more we feel safe in our cars with early warning systems, the quicker we are to use our smart phones.
The number of smart phones in the United States increased from 75% to 81% from 2014 to 2016. As a country we are obsessed with the convenience and the amount of information we have at our hands at all times. It appears that as a culture we become increasingly dependant on our phone at all times and we want the information immediately.
While technology is definitly increasing insurance rates today, the good news is, that as these cars with technology get older, the parts and the training involved in repairing them should get cheaper.
Finding the Right Auto Body Shop Near Me
If you find yourself in an accident and you need a shop that has the equipment, training and understanding of all of the latest technology and systems in your car, take it to a Collision Pros near you in Auburn, Chico, Paradise, Red Bluff, Woodland or Loomis, California. Collision Pros where we get it right, on time, every time.
