The insurance industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by growing demand for digitalisation and personalisation. With growing importance of technologies such as cloud innovations, telematics, machine learning, big data, deep learning, and data science, insurers are overcoming demographic challenges, low penetration rates, cybercrimes and fraudulent claims. In the last three years alone, there have been over 11,000 patents filed and granted in the insurance industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Cloud in Insurance: Remote vehicle maintenance monitoring.
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which uses over 65,000 patents to analyse innovation intensity for the insurance industry, there are 90 innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Remote vehicle maintenance monitoring is a key innovation area in cloud
Remote vehicle monitoring systems are predominantly used by businesses to track the movements of their vehicles, especially trucks and trailers. They are also referred to as fleet management systems, when used exclusively for commercial vehicles. Retail use is on the rise, with developing telematics and connected cars.
Remote vehicle monitoring systems provide location tracking, monitor driving behavior, track fuel consumption, and enable users to save time, resources, and effort, apart from increasing control and safety, and lowering management costs through more automation and less human operation.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 60+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established insurance companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of remote vehicle maintenance monitoring.
Key players in remote vehicle maintenance monitoring – a disruptive innovation in the insurance industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’.
Patent volumes related to remote vehicle maintenance monitoring
Source: GlobalData Patent Analytics
State Farm Mutual is one of the leading patent filers in systems and methods for generating vehicle crash data. Their approach evaluates if a primary mobile computing device has detected a car crash. It is also possible to determine if a second mobile computing device has spotted the crash. Such sensor data may be used to generate car crash data, which may include indications of the severity of the impact, the number of passengers in the vehicle, or whether the crash occurred. Some other key patent filers in the industry include Allstate, INRIX, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, SoftBank Group, and Flex.
In terms of application diversity, INRIX heads the list, with Flex and Intel in the second and third positions, respectively. By means of geographic reach, Discovery holds the top position, followed by Allianz and JC&C Bowers.
To further understand the key themes and technologies disrupting the insurance industry, access GlobalData’s latest thematic research report on Cloud Computing in Insurance.
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GlobalData, the leading provider of industry intelligence, provided the underlying data, research, and analysis used to produce this article.
GlobalData’s Patent Analytics tracks patent filings and grants from official offices around the world. Textual analysis and official patent classifications are used to group patents into key thematic areas and link them to specific companies across the world’s largest industries.
