Tesla Insurance was scheduled to launch in Florida on October 20, 2022, but the date came and went with no sign of the product. A new filing with the State of Florida has revealed the reason hasn’t been released yet, and that when it does launch it will come with a new version of Safety Score.
Just a few weeks before the scheduled launch date, the state sent Tesla an email on October 5, 2022 with questions on two outstanding items from their filing.
The first was in regards their plans to adjust their “targeted rate level, based on competitor’s rate level,” which the state said needed to be based on rate levels from competitors that had been “approved but not reflected in [Tesla’s] target rate level.”
Tesla responded with the letter on November 10 with their proposed adjustments. Although the changes were not published by the state, Tesla’s wording in the letter suggests the rates increased, not decreased.
“Please see Exhibit 1-4 for our proposed adjustment of the target rate level base don competitor rate level. We’ve summarized the rate increased of competitors approved since our initial competitive analysis in Exhibit 4,” Tesla wrote in the email.
More interesting however was the second reason for the delay. According to October 5 email, Tesla had already explained to the state they were planning on releasing “a newer version of telematics model in FL program,” with telematics program referring to Tesla’s Safety Score tool.
Unfortunately Tesla requested the details of the new Safety Score model, referred to in the letter as v1.2, be marked as a trade secret and not released so we don’t know what has changed. Tesla did say they included the following data for the state to review.
- Tesla – Collision Frequency Model – Per Mile v.12
- Tesla – Collision Frequency Model – Per Mile v.12 (redline)
- GLM Predictive Model Questionnaire – PPA v1.2
- Safety Score Rating Factor Support v1.2
- Safety Score Rating Example v1.2
- FL Safety Program Rule
Tesla’s Safety Score has been criticized ever since it was first released. The tool analyzes real-time driving behaviour to determine your monthly premium (and your eligibility for the Full Self-Driving Beta program), measuring things like Forward Collision Warnings, Hard Braking, Aggressive Turning, and more.
If you score well on these metrics, in other words have little to no collision warnings, no hard braking etc., Tesla considers you a safer driver and your monthly premium can be reduced. Score poorly and the opposite can happen.
The criticism comes in because some of the metrics can be very sensitive, like the collision warnings. It even led to a lawsuit in which an owner sued Tesla because false collision warnings were driving up his insurance premium.
Many owners hoping to get into the FSD Beta program experienced the same thing. A more common sense approach would be to pair Forward Collision Warnings with Hard Braking, and only if both occur do you get a hit to your Safety Score.
Hopefully that is one of the changes Tesla will implement in Safety Score v1.2, but we will have to wait to see all the final details when it is released with Tesla Insurance in Florida, a date for which was not mentioned in the letter.
You can read the full letter below. (via Reddit)
