Tesla To Offer Insurance, Raising Eyebrows

Tesla is always looking for ways to innovate the automobile experience, and this time that means taking care of one of the more necessary if pesky aspects of driving, your insurance. Just To be Sure Tesla plans to offer its own in-house insurance. The company says its rates could be 20% and, in some cases, up to 30% lower than third-party insurancers. Tesla can keep costs down, the company claims, because it understands its products in-and-out and can eliminate the fees most traditional insurance companies charge, and the company’s “active safety and advanced driver assistance features,” which are now standard with all new models, also helps in that regard. So far, the product is only available in California, but the company hopes to roll the service out to the rest of America soon. And if you’d rather stick with a traditional insurance company, that’s fine as well, Tesla says. You Don’t Say Not to brag, but Tesla initially announced this program during a first quarter earnings call, in response to a Say user's question about creating an insurance program that takes into account the safety of driving on autopilot. So if you haven’t used Say to ask companies questions during earnings calls, you’re missing out! Full House As pointed out by CNET, Tesla already offers a direct-sales model, and this program might be another sign that Elon Musk and company want to keep things in house as much as possible. Slow Down? Tesla owners might love the idea of lower payments, but critics (including the Oracle of Omaha) wonder if the company is really more qualified to assess rates than traditional insurance companies, which have decades of experience and millions of users’ data to pull from. -Michael Tedder Photo: Amanda Voisard/REUTERS