Toyota Partners With Insurify To Streamline Shopping For Coverage

Toyota is partnering with Insurify, a platform that enables Toyota owners to shop and compare auto insurance rates, the companies announced Wednesday.

Insurify is a Cambridge, Mass.-based company that is competing with such comparison shopping sites at Root Insurance, The Zebra, Coverhound and Goji.

By partnering with Toyota Insurance Management Solutions, Insurify intends to provide a way for Toyota customers to seamlessly to compare and purchase auto insurance online.

“We’re very excited to be able to help Toyota Insurance Management Solutions provide their customers with a cutting-edge insurance shopping and buying experience,” Insurify CEO Snejina Zacharia said in a statement. “Insurify is committed to helping people make the best decision about their insurance by providing them with the tools and information they need to feel empowered during the process.”

Other automakers are partnering with insurers to make it easier for carbuyers to shop and compare coverage rates.

For example, last November General Motors

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launched an auto insurance platform through its OnStar unit.

Over the last year, Ford reached agreements with State Farm, Allstate

ALL
, Liberty Mutual and Metromile to help customers reduce their insurance premiums using a vehicle’s telematics features that collect data on driver behavior.  

In 2016 Tesla started a similar program called Insure My Tesla.

This trend is driven by the evolution of automated driving features that the industry hopes will lead to fully self-driving cars.

That could drive down insurance premiums because autonomous cars are intended to eliminate human error, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports cause 94% of crashes.

Theoretically, that could reduce insurers’ claims payouts.

So in a world in which are vehicles are fully autonomous, would be necessary?

The answer is yes. First the technology has a long way to do.

There will still be accidents. Millions of aging, human-driven vehicles will remain on the road. Brakes will fail, those drivers will make mistakes, and someone will still have to pay for the damage when crashes happen.

In the case of autonomous cars, that someone could be the manufacturer.

Insurify launched in 2016 and has enabled the purchase of more than $170 million in insurance premiums since then. The company said it doubled the number of its repeat users in 2020.

Its investors include Mass Mutual Ventures and Nationwide.

“We are committed to enhancing the Toyota ownership experience by providing simple, convenient ways to shop for and purchase insurance for all Toyota models, new and used,” said Will Nicklas, chief operating officer of Toyota Insurance Management Solutions.

Toyota customers, select dealerships and employees can begin using Insurify’s comparison and purchase experience this month through the toyotaclaims.com web site.