Understanding Usability and User Acceptance of Usage-Based Insurance from Users' View

TL;DR

This paper investigates user acceptance and usability of Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) through user studies, revealing factors affecting acceptance and safety concerns, and suggesting improvements for transparency and customization.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into user perceptions of UBI, highlighting factors influencing acceptance and safety, which were previously underexplored in research.

Findings

UBI can provoke dangerous driving behaviors under certain conditions.

Transparency and customizable feedback improve UBI acceptance.

Driving environment and policy conditions influence user acceptance.

Abstract

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) cover a variety of services related to topics such as traffic control and safe driving, among others. In the context of car insurance, a recent application for ITS is known as Usage-Based Insurance (UBI). UBI refers to car insurance policies that enable insurance companies to collect individual driving data using a telematics device. Collected data is analysed and used to offer individual discounts based on driving behaviour and to provide feedback on driving performance. Although there are plenty of advertising materials about the benefits of UBI, the user acceptance and the usability of UBI systems have not received research attention so far. To this end, we conduct two user studies: semi-structured interviews with UBI users and a qualitative analysis of 186 customer inquiries from a web forum of a German insurance company. We find that under certain circumstances, UBI provokes dangerous driving behaviour. These situations could be mitigated by making UBI transparent and the feedback customisable by drivers. Moreover, the country driving conditions, the policy conditions, and the perceived driving style influence UBI acceptance.