Latest news with #TeslaInsurance
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla car insurance: How to avoid the sticker shock
You'll save money on gas as a Tesla owner, but you might get sticker shock when it's time to buy car insurance. Auto insurance for electric vehicles like Teslas generally costs more than for gas-powered cars because EVs are often more expensive to repair and replace. The higher repair and replacement costs drive up the cost of insurance claims, which then leads to higher car insurance rates for those models. Choosing an insurance company is not the time to go on autopilot. Comparison shopping is critical, and in some states, shopping around includes getting a car insurance quote from Tesla. Here's how to navigate the options. This embedded content is not available in your region. Learn more: The reasons electric car insurance will cost you more, and how to save Tesla started offering car insurance in California in 2019 and has since expanded to 11 other states. Tesla Insurance offers a full menu of standard coverage, including liability, uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, medical payment, personal injury protection, and collision and comprehensive insurance. Additional options include rental reimbursement, roadside assistance coverage, and auto loan/lease gap coverage. Learn more: Most common types of car insurance explained You can get quotes for Tesla Insurance, purchase and manage a policy, and make a claim through the Tesla app. Just ordered a new Tesla? While waiting for the vehicle, you can get a quote as soon as you have a vehicle identification number (VIN) and a delivery date. In some states, owners of other vehicles can also buy Tesla Insurance. Learn more: How much car insurance do I need? Tesla offers car insurance in the following states: Arizona California Colorado Illinois Maryland Minnesota Nevada Ohio Oregon Texas Utah Virginia Learn more: How does your ZIP code affect your car insurance? In most states where it's operating, the company offers 'Tesla Real-Time Insurance,' which uses driving behavior data from the vehicle you're driving to help price your policy. Each month, the company calculates a 'Safety Score' based on your previous 30 days of driving habits, and your premium is adjusted depending on the score and number of miles driven. Higher scores and lower mileage mean a lower monthly car insurance premium. In the first month of a policy, the company assumes a Safety Score of 90 out of 100. Learn more: How does car insurance work? The basics explained. Tesla vehicles are equipped with sensors and software to track driving behavior, so no plug-in equipment is required, as with some other usage-based insurance programs. Policies in California are not based on real-time driving behavior. California Tesla owners can see their Safety Scores in the Tesla app, but the scores do not affect their car insurance rates. Other basic factors that affect the cost of Tesla Insurance are: The vehicle make, model, trim, and year. The higher the cost to repair or replace a vehicle, the more it costs to insure it. Where the vehicle is garaged. Car insurance rates tend to be lower in safer neighborhoods. The amount and type of coverage. Buying full coverage car insurance, which includes liability, collision, and comprehensive insurance, costs more than purchasing only the state-required minimum of liability insurance. Learn more: How your vehicle's make and model affect car insurance costs A variety of driving habits can lower your Safety Score, including: Hard braking Aggressive turning Following another vehicle too closely Excessive speeding Driving between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. Driving without fastening your seatbelt Forced Autopilot Disengagement Forced Autopilot Disengagement happens after the vehicle's technology determines that you haven't applied enough resistance to the steering wheel or are inattentive. The vehicle gives three warnings before disengaging the Autopilot system. More details on these factors and how they influence the score are available on the Tesla website. Learn more: What is a car insurance premium, and how is it calculated? Tesla Insurance offers a variety of car insurance discounts, but not all of them are available in every state. They include: An airbag discount is available in Nevada if the vehicle is equipped with a driver's side front airbag or airbags on both front sides. An anti-theft device discount, available in Illinois and Minnesota, applies to vehicles equipped with approved anti-theft devices. The discount is automatically applied for Tesla vehicles and requires confirmation of the equipment for vehicles other than Teslas. Drivers over age 55 (60 in Ohio) can get a defensive-driving-course discount after completing an approved defensive-driving class in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, and Virginia. In California, the discount is called the Mature Driver Improvement Course discount. The Full Self-Driving (FSD) (Supervised) discount is available in Arizona and Texas for driving more than 50 percent of miles with the FSD (Supervised) technology enabled. The technology provides automatic emergency braking, collision warnings, lane departure avoidance, and other features, but still requires a fully attentive driver. Good driver and elite driver discounts are available only in California. The good driver discount is for having no major violations and no more than one minor violation or accident in the last three years. The elite discount is for having no at-fault accidents or any violations in the last five years. The discounts are applied automatically to qualified drivers. Group discounts for Tesla employees are available in every state where Tesla Insurance operates. Multi-car discounts — for insuring more than one vehicle with the company — are available in every state where Tesla Insurance operates. A non-stacking discount is available in Nevada for having more than one vehicle insured with Tesla Insurance and purchasing uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage. Like most insurance providers, Tesla Insurance draws mixed reviews from consumers on Reddit and other sites. Happy customers like the convenience of buying and managing the policy and claims through the app and say they're paying less for coverage than with other companies. A common theme among unhappy customers centers around the Safety Score and its impact on premiums. Some customers say that in urban areas, it's challenging to avoid the kinds of driving behavior that lowers the score and results in higher car insurance rates. The cost is low when conditions are perfect, one customer posted two years ago, but the potential to get penalized and pay more for coverage 'makes you paranoid to drive the car.' Pros: Lower premiums for good driving habits and low mileage Easy to buy and manage the policy through the app Variety of discounts available Cons: Available in only 12 states Monthly premium fluctuations may make budgeting for car insurance challenging Common discounts, like bundling home and auto insurance, may not be available Many insurers offer coverage for Teslas, including big players like Allstate, GEICO, Progressive, State Farm, and others. And if you like Tesla's approach to pricing based on your actual driving, consider usage-based insurance programs from other companies, such as State Farm's Drive Safe & Save. Similar to Tesla's Real-Time Insurance, usage-based programs track your driving and give discounts for good habits and low mileage. Be careful, though, because some usage-based programs can result in a higher rate if your driving doesn't score well. Take these steps to find the best deal on car insurance for a Tesla: Decide how much coverage you need. Most states require a minimum amount of liability insurance, but it's a good idea to buy enough to cover your assets. Purchase collision and comprehensive insurance to cover your vehicle; liability insurance only covers the damage and injuries you cause others. Shop around. Get quotes for the coverage you need from at least three insurance companies, including Tesla Insurance if you live in one of the states where it's offered. Consider bundling, or the lack thereof. Own a home? Take into account the cost of forfeiting a discount for bundling home and auto insurance because Tesla doesn't offer home insurance. If you're thinking about buying Tesla Insurance, compare the cost of buying Tesla auto insurance and another company's home insurance with the cost of home and auto insurance bundles from other insurers. Consider customer service. Talk to other Tesla owners about their experiences with Tesla Insurance. How well did it respond to claims? How challenging was it to achieve a high Safety Score and maintain low monthly premiums? Would you prefer working with an agent or primarily through an app? Select a company that makes the most sense for you. Choose the insurance company that offers a low cost and the kind of service you want. Amy Danise and Tim Manni edited this article.
USA Today
20-02-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
Tesla needs more Full Self Driving data and is offering discounted car insurance for it
Tesla needs more Full Self Driving data and is offering discounted car insurance for it Wary of Tesla's unfinished, still-in-beta-form Full Self Driving automated driving software? We are too, not least because this feature isn't ready for prime time. We have the hands-free driving assistant installed on our Model Y long-term test car, and it's hardly confidence inspiring, and third-party evaluators have reached similar conclusions. It's also expensive, costing either several thousand dollars up front or $99 per month to use on a subscription basis. Tesla, however, relies on users experimenting with — we mean, using — FSD to collect real-world data that it says helps shape the software for the better. Never mind that other automakers gather this sort of data in testing conditions, with the oversight of company engineers and coders — not just regular people playing with a risky, unfinished feature on actual roads. In need of more users for that precious data stream, Tesla has come up with a discount to encourage more FSD use that's tied to the company's in-house insurance offering. More from MotorTrend: How much is a Tesla Cybertruck EV pickup? Here's a pricing breakdown Tesla Insurance is available to Tesla owners, provided by Tesla, and owners can now see a discount on their premiums if they up their usage of FSD. The numbers are a little fuzzy, though. Tesla says it'll cut 10 percent off users' premium costs, provided they use FSD for more than 50 percent of all their driving (as measured by total miles driven per month, compared to miles driven that same month using FSD). Dive deeper into the fine print and it seems that the 10 percent discount isn't a blanket, across-the-premium haircut — it only applies to "certain eligible coverages and not to your total insurance policy premium." Users also can't realize the discounts if they're running a trial version of Full Self Driving — you gotta pony up for the full subscription cost or have the software activated up front. The discounts also are only available to owners in Texas and Arizona. In case you missed it: Elon Musk says Tesla aims to introduce a $25,000 model in 2025 Sounds great, provided you can eat the cost of the non-trial FSD feature. But it also is highly counterintuitive on a common-sense scale: Though Tesla insists FSD is safer than human drivers, as we've found with our Model Y and other Teslas we've tested with FSD, the system makes mind-boggling and potentially devastating mistakes. (We pay close attention when testing FSD, always ready to retake control should the car decide to do something bizarre or unsafe, like driving down the wrong side of an unmarked dirt road or suddenly cutting off other traffic, but some users might not be as fastidious.) In brief, using FSD often (certainly more than 50 percent of the time) seems, based on our experience, to be an imprudent choice. But if you zoom out and look at what Tesla's really doing with FSD — essentially, testing a feature on public roads using, well, the public — the Tesla Insurance discounts read a little differently. Though we don't think anyone should be using FSD more often in its current form, the insurance cut for owners is a cost increase for Tesla. In other words, it shows Tesla putting more of its skin in the FSD testing game, by taking on (at least in part) the potential liabilities of greater FSD use. So, whether you see it as an incentive to get owners using FSD more, or more responsibility for that FSD use shifting to Tesla's balance sheet, in reality it's a little of both. Photos by MotorTrend
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Tesla Shaving Money Off Insurance Bills for Owners Who Use Full Self-Driving
Like any computer program, Tesla's semi-autonomous Full Self-Driving (Supervised) technology uses data to function properly. We're not talking about just a few gigabytes either; it leverages untold gigabytes of data to do what it does — and the more data it can gather, the more it can learn and improve. That gives the electric car company a big motivation to encourage drivers to utilize FSD as much as possible... so it's likely one of the reasons the carmaker is now offering insurance discounts to those who use the technology. And the more you use it, Tesla says, the more you save. Unlike many semi-autonomous systems used by other automakers, FSD leverages cameras rather than radar sensors or highly accurate maps to help the car navigate the world. All of the video captured while FSD is active, in turn, can become part of the data Tesla uses to train the system overall. The insurance discount is available to Tesla owners who have already bought or subscribed to FSD (Supervised). The carmaker tells customers that "The more you drive with FSD (Supervised) enabled, the bigger the discount is on your insurance premium." Over the course of the month, Tesla will collect data from subscribers, including how far they've driven and how many of those miles were on FSD. Then, Tesla Insurance will calculate the owner's next monthly premium based on their percentage of Full Self-Driving use. Those who use FSD for at least half of all miles driven will see up to 10% off their insurance bill. Notably, the discount is only related to FSD; usage of the less-advanced Autopilot doesn't contribute to any deal. Notably, there are some pretty big hoops to jump through to obtain this discount. Namely, one must live in either Texas or Arizona; the other 48 states don't have access to this deal for now. In addition, it's only available in those states to those who are new policy holders as of February 1, 2025. Customers who already have Tesla insurance will have to wait until at least March 8 before they can renew and take advantage of this discount. In addition, the discount might not apply to some of the coverage certain Tesla owners have. For example, the automaker says that comprehensive, uninsured motorist bodily injury (UMBI) or uninsured motorist property damage (UMPD) may not be eligible for the discount. Finally, it isn't available to customers in the midst of a 30-day trial of FSD but haven't purchased the $8000 option outright. There are lots of limitations — but we wouldn't be surprised to see the brand roll this out to more people as time goes on and Tesla pushes further into the self-driving realm. You Might Also Like You Need a Torque Wrench in Your Toolbox Tested: Best Car Interior Cleaners The Man Who Signs Every Car
