“It’s hard to break out of poverty and poor credit when your insurance takes up such a large chunk of your income.” And this means that too many Americans drive without insurance: typically about 14% compared to less than 1% in Europe or Canada. He added: “When we started Just Insure, we saw this as an opportunity. How can we create an auto insurance product that works for the lowest-income Americans? How can we use real behavior to encourage safe driving, increase the number of people with insurance on the roads, and reduce the number of accidents?” “Insurance is the most data-driven profession of all, but the industry was slow to recognize change. It relies on slow-changing demographic factors such as age, zip code, and marital status. This missed an extraordinary amount of data being collected in real time about drivers, how we could measure actual driving and behavior.” He added: “The use of telematics changes all that. If you exhibit safer behavior or you don’t drive so much, then you can personally benefit. We have customers who pay 80% less than with traditional insurers. “Credit score and zip codes are not bad ways to measure risk in general, but within that group, some individuals are going to be safe, while others are risky. A good driver in a low-income area might pay double what a worse driver pays in a wealthy zip code, simply because of statistical correlations. That’s not fair, and technology now allows us to do better. “Telematics makes insurance more equitable by turning it into something people can control. You can’t change your credit score, education, or zip code overnight, but you can change your driving habits. “That gives customers agency; they’re not just passive buyers, they’re participants in how their risk is priced. We also reward improvement: as your driving behavior improves, your premiums drop. That positive feedback loop encourages safer roads overall.”