Telematics Car Insurance

Telematics or "black box" technology is defined as an integration of "telecommunications" and "informatics". It's basically a technology that’s been developed to send, receive and store data via telecommunication devices. It's largely used in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology (for example, Sat Navs) integrated with computers and mobile communication platforms. As a result of this technology telematics car insurance (or "black box insurance") has evolved to help bring down the cost of cover for young drivers.

Any of this making sense yet? Let's simplify it:

Although telematics may sound like a complicated subject to get your head round it's really very easy.

iKube utilises a telematics or "black box" device (as we tend to refer to it) that is installed in the young or learner driver's car. Here is the process in a nut-shell:

1. The black box is installed under the dashboard of the car 2. The data the black box processes is sent back to us 3. The data is also sent direct to your dashboard so that you can monitor it for yourself 4. We simply check the time of day you're driving 5. As long as you don’t drive between 11pm – 5am (the iKube red hours) you will continue to benefit from the discounted cover. If you do drive during the red hours you incur a nightly charge – for every night you drive during the red hours.

So iKube only really use the black box to check the time of day you're driving during the policy.

When it comes around to renewing your telematics car insurance policy with us we will take the data collected into account.

We monitor a number of aspects about your driving, including:

• Speed
• Cornering
• Braking
• Acceleration

By monitoring this data we can get a good idea on how you have driven over the course of the year. If the data suggests that you are a good, careful driver then you could be rewarded with a renewal premium to match (in some cases we can reward discounts up to 40%).

Find out more about black box insurance and how it could benefit you.