- gm is launching onstar insurance adding an additional level of service to its onstar subscriptions.
- the service will be available as traditional insurance, or subscribers can let onstar analyze their driving habits to get potentially lower rates.
- onstar insurance will launch in arizona with gm employees this year and will likely be available nationwide to everyone by the end of 2021.
gm is getting back into the insurance game. the automaker had its own insurance up until the financial crisis and sold it off in 2008. now, 12 years later, it's dipping back into the realm of actuaries, coverage, and premiums with an onstar twist.
today gm announced that it will begin a pilot program of onstar insurance. as you may have guessed, the insurance would give drivers the option to use data collected from the onstar service to offer them lower premiums based on their driving habits. if you’re not keen on an automaker (and its insurance carrier partner, american family insurance) knowing exactly how you drive, there's also the option to sign up for typical insurance that doesn't know that maybe you speed sometimes while on the highway.
gm says that bundling onstar's service with insurance offers an additional level of security and peace of mind. andrew rose, president of onstar insurance services, told car and driver, "the gm ecosystem can bring great value to a claims process." he pointed to a scenario where an onstar subscriber gets a phone call after a collision and said that with onstar insurance, that level of service could be extended to use data from the vehicle to determine the damage, figure out the parts needed, and help order a courtesy vehicle based on the type of vehicle a person owns. rose also said the system could help expedite determining if a vehicle is a total loss and could potentially help with figuring out how to finance a new gm with the company's financial arm.
if an onstar insurance user has non-gm vehicles they want on their plan, they could work with tamerican family for multi-vehicle discounts. so you’re not dealing with multiple insurance carriers if you like a multi-brand household.
onstar insurance won’t be available for everyone right away. initially, the service will launch in arizona with gm employees. but rose said that if everything goes to plan, the service will be available nationwide by the end of 2021.