Highway extends lie detector use
Highway has reaffirmed its commitment to lie detection technology, becoming the first insurer to pilot the Digilog system for third party accident and personal injury claims.Highway confirmed that 500 third-party accident and personal injury claims will be analysed during the in-house trial at Highway's offices in Basildon, Essex. It became the first insurer to use lie detection technology on motor claims, after launching a pilot in 2002.Meanwhile, Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) has become the largest insurer to trial the Digilog system.A spokesman for R&SA, the third largest UK insurer by gross written premium, confirmed this week that the company was trialing Digilog's voice stress analysis (VSA) technology "on a selected portion of our motor claims across R&SA".R&SA is the latest in a number of leading insurers to run a pilot with Digilog. Last month, Insurance Times exclusively revealed that Zurich had launched a two-month Digilog pilot on a selection of its motor claims.Other insurers to have piloted VSA include Admiral, Allianz Cornhill, Cox and HBOS.Digilog claims that VSA is able to detect truthful claims by measuring the frequency patterns of claimants' speech.VSA can detect if a claim is genuine in 15 minutes, according to Digilog. As a result, Digilog claims that, by using VSA technology, insurers can reduce their loss adjuster instructions by 50%.
How good is VSAIn October 2003, Admiral disclosed the results of a pilot it ran on motor theft claims. During the trial, around 20% of motor theft claimants withdrew their claim after being assessed by the VSA technology.During trials run at Highway on motor claims, 18% of claims were queried at the first stage of the VSA process, and, of that 18%, around 60% of claimants withdrew from the process.
