Wunelli looks to motor manufacturers as future of telematics

Telematics provider Wunelli is looking to partner with motor manufacturers following its acquisition by global data house LexisNexis.

Wunelli managing director Penny Searles said the move would help the companies take advantage of an emerging area of the telematics marketplace – connected cars.

“We are trying to build relationships with the motor manufacturers to ensure that when that data is available from connected cars that we have access to it and we can validate and distribute it for our insurers,” she said. “Where we are going to be utilising that LexisNexis relationship is the reputation, because motor manufacturers need a big company to work with. They would not have been interested in the small company that Wunelli was.”

Searles said that partnering with the motor manufacturers would allow Wunelli to provide its insurer clients with data to improve customer satisfaction and increase underwriting profitability.

“There are already over one million cars in Europe with connected data available,” she said. “If that data is available in the event of a crash, we need to find a way to access it, not only to enhance the experience for the customer, but to reduce the loss ratios.”

Searles also said that the acquisition by LexisNexis had opened up new opportunities for both companies that could not have existed if the purchase had not gone ahead.

This has led to Wunelli staff working in conjunction with LexisNexis staff on a Chinese project, as well as US clients of LexisNexis declaring interest in Wunelli smartphone telematics apps.

LexisNexis Risk Solutions senior vice president and general manager auto insurance Ash Hassib said: “We don’t have an app as sophisticated as [the Wunelli one] in the US and we would like to introduce that into the market. We have already received significant interest from the US insurers to try this app, because it eliminates the need for a device. This brings the cost down and it is maintenance-free.”