Waymo Driverless Ride-Hailing Service Will Insure Passengers Through Insurance Tech Start-Up
Waymo LLC recently announced that it will use Trov Inc., a five-year old insurance start-up, to insure riders using its driverless ride-hailing service. Waymo, which is the autonomous car unit of Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent), is hoping to beat others in the auto and ride-hailing industry to introduce its fleet of driverless vehicles; Waymo CEO stated in November 2017 that they were aiming to offer rides in driverless vehicles “in the next few months.” Through Trov’s usage-based insurance, Waymo riders will be insured for lost property and for injuries. Specifically, Trov developed a solution that can measure risk for “micro-durations” and can cover passengers just for the length of a ride in a Waymo vehicle. Even with the lack of data on insuring driverless vehicles, a unit of Munich Re AG has agreed to underwrite the Trov policies with Waymo.
