Making Roads Safer With Radar!

INTRO

On episode 29 of the InsureTechGeek podcast, talking about making roads safer with radar, with guest Justine DelPrete from SafeDrive Systems.

The InsureTech podcast powered by JBKnowledge is all about technology that is transforming and disrupting the insurance world. We will be interviewing guests and doing deep dives into specific technologies we see changing the industry. We are taking you on a journey through insurance tech. So, enjoy the ride, and geek out.

INTERVIEW

JAMES: We are going to have a fun time this week talking about one of my favorite topics and that is cars. I am a nut about anything that flies are floats or rolls. And so, we are going to talk about safety, we are going to talk about safety with radar. We are going to talk about hardware versus software course you know. If you know me now, I am a bit of a software geek, but we have another InsurTech geek with us. Our illustrious cohost, the most interesting man in insurance, Mr. Rob Galbraith. Rob, how are you doing today?

ROB: I am doing great, James. I have to tell you a quick story. So, my kids went to school this week here in Texas, at least in my school district. The week started Monday. My youngest is 10. She is starting fifth grade and they are starting at home, which I am sure many kids and parents are dealing with this. So, I log into my computer, I work from home, and I get this enraged text, all caps. WHO IS USING THE INTERNET? With a mad face. And I am like, my wife also works out of the house, so, we are like, we all do. So, we have been managing it all week. And so today, I was talking to my wife, talking about wrapping it up. We have got kids going to sports things later tonight and tomorrow and all that. And she is like, oh, by the way, happy anniversary! So, I’m like, oh no!

JAMES: Oh no!

ROB: So, to my wonderful wife Danny, shout out our 11th anniversary today!

JAMES: Oh, awesome. And with us, someone who we are going to have a great conversation with, because she is all about technology and making driving safer, which is a super important topic. Her name is Justine Del Prete. Justine, welcome to the show.

JUSTINE: Thanks for having me. Hey guys! I love that story with the anniversary. Is not that the most cliché forgetting, you know the man forgets the anniversary?

ROB: Yeah, she is like, I do not have a card, like when I was going out to eat. I think we have agreed on someplace we are going to get just a takeout, like we will order online and have them… So, we are going to carve out some time this weekend, but yeah, it is 2020. It is like, oh my gosh.

JAMES: You better carve something out. But it is not like, you know, everybody is spending more time than they ever imagined with their significant others. Cause all travel is dead and it is like, oh my gosh, I am constantly around these people. And they are great. My kids are great, but I did not intend to be around them 23 hours a day. So, school here in College Station started in person. Not online. So, they are in the buildings.

ROB: Interesting.

JAMES: They are wearing masks all day. And they are loving it, and they are happy to wear the masks. So, they are there and so far, so good.

JUSTINE: Interesting.

JAMES: We will see how it works out. We are not going to talk about COVID anymore. We are going to talk about tech. And, I just want to remind our listeners out there, if you want to subscribe to the podcast if you are listening to this, but you are not subscribed, text GeekOut to 66866. You too can be an InsurTech Geek, by texting GeekOut to 66866 and make sure you never miss an episode!

So, Justine, you have a fascinating background. And I want to talk about, where are you born… Cause we love talking about the insurance side of things, we love talking about technology. Almost nobody chooses to go into insurance as a life calling.

JUSTINE: No that seldom happens. My whole family is in it.

JAMES: Yeah, you end up in insurance.

JUSTINE: You just kind of land there.

JAMES: Yeah, you land there and then you are like, oh my gosh, this is awesome. Which is what happened to me. But let us talk about you. Where are you born and raised, when you were a kid, what did you dream of doing? And then, where did you study and how did you end up where you are at?

JUSTINE: Sure. All right. So, I am born and raised, I am a long Island girl for life. I grew up in a little small town there called Garden City in Nassau County and here in New York. Spend my summers in The Hamptons, and I would go to the city every day for work. I am a typical suburban lady friend. I was actually pre-law. So. I actually worked for an insurance company, an MGA in Long Island. Some of the big guys in the compliance and claims department. And I loved the law. I did a lot of volunteering in college, so I worked for women’s shelters. I wanted to do to domestic abuse, child neglect. I worked heavily with CPS for many years, ran a hotline, something that is near and dear to my heart. I still work at the shelters here on Long Island. They are underground, but great cause. So, I wanted to go into law. Did not expect to be here.

And then my second dream was fashion. And I did start that career path when I decided not to go to law school. But then I ended up in insurance. Cause I would rather be able to buy the clothes than… It was, definitely Devils Wears Prada. So, I had an opportunity. I began in insurance. I worked at an MGA and it just spun out from there. I got my Masters in PR and Marketing. Worked in marketing and insurance specifically. So, I have my broker’s license, I do not use that, but it is there if I need it. And I liked the risk management part of it. I guess that is the law in me, the analytical side of it, risk management services. So, it was only natural that after many years to come to an InsureTech. I think that word needs to evolve by the way. I would not consider myself an InsureTech. I think we are more of this word called; I have developed it. I do not know if it is a real word. RiskTech. Cause we are a loss mitigation tool.

JAMES: Sure, and we are going to talk about what the company does, but you got into way more than just speeding up them buying insurance, right? Not that that is a small deal because that is a big deal for a lot of folks, is making insurance more accessible, making it easier to buy, making it faster to buy. Like those are all good things, but the technology that you are developing actually prevents the loss in the first place. And that is something that makes it different. So, I agree with you. RiskTech is probably a better umbrella for you to talk about. By the way, you went to a College in Florida. Is that right?

JUSTINE: I went to Rollins in Winter Park. It is right outside of Disney World.

JAMES: I know where it is. I go down there all the time man.

JUSTINE: Yeah. I love Disney. I have timesharing at Disney. I am 33 years old with no children. I am the girl, wearing her Cinderella outfit all around the park.

JAMES: Yes, you are. My favorite thing to do is to take one of my employees, like one of my management team, and we will go to Disney World, and just like the two of us. I took Diego one time, my Head of Product. And when you have two adults, you can fly through Disney and you can do like single rider line, and you can blow through it and catch all the rides. It is amazing.

JUSTINE: My boyfriend hated me. He is like, this is the least romantic trip I have ever taken in my life. He is like, you do not allow me to sleep. I am like, we got to go. We have an itinerary. So we were going through the Magic Kingdom till 2:00 AM of, you know?

JAMES: Yeah. So, you had these cool life experiences and you went down to Florida like many New Yorkers do. New York is like half for Florida.

JUSTINE: I think every New Yorker has been to Florida or wanted to go.

JAMES: Yeah. Kind of typical. And then you get your masters from Hofstra, and then you were working at Hugh Wood, you were working as a Marketing Analyst at AIG. And then, two years ago, I guess a year and a half, two years ago, what happened? Like what sparked leaving one of the largest insurance companies out there and jumping out?

JUSTINE: So, being with the carrier side, I think the journey that I took, although I do not regret it, I think that it probably should have been the other way around. And then land where I landed. Now would have been the end result but going from an MGA and then a broker to a carrier, it is just really different pieced. It is a completely different environment. Especially I was in such a different capacity. I do marketing, so I was always part of like-new products. I was heavily into risk management. Risk management was a large part of my job. Working with the risk management teams, for content and bids and RFP’s, so you need that risk management knowledge to write that content, and to help your sales team to sell. So, it was weird for me to go to the carrier at the end. And I was like, I think I want to be on the innovative side. I want to try something new.

And this opportunity, my boss, I mean, he was after me for quite some time. And, I said you know what, I am going to take the leap, I am going to try something new. And I thought it would be really cool to be a part of, to still use what I have learned, with my risk management, and always saving lives. I am always a saver. My mom always says I love wounded birds. And that’s what we do here. I work for an InsureTech that saves in my opinion, saves lives. So, it was just my natural progression. I think that it was fate, to end up where I ended up.

JAMES: So, tell us exactly as they would say in the office space, what exactly it is you do here? So Safe Drive is combining, and you know, I am typically on software, but y’all are both. You span the gap, you have hardware and software, you are bolting on for commercial auto and you’re actually helping prevent the accident, and then you are also logging data around when accidents happen, so you can troubleshoot them later.

JUSTINE: Sort of. Sort of not. So, we are hardware and software, but definitely do not forget about the human factor. We are all about empowering the human aspect. Helping the driver will become a better driver, not distracting the driver, not taking away from the driver, not being invasive, not stepping on the driver’s toes. We want your employees, your drivers to be safe, and then we want others on the road to be safe. So, if we can prevent that from happening, catastrophe, let us do it. And that’s the goal that we have you set out to do. We use technology to make the road safer. It is our mission for every tax solution that comes out of our pipeline. Every product is dedicated to that overreaching goal. It is to save lives, make the road a safer place through our, through the use of technology.

JAMES: Okay.

JUSTINE:  I am proud to say that I think that we do a pretty damn good job at it.

JAMES: But you are not the only company out there that put sensors and cameras on cars. So, there is a bunch of those solutions.

JUSTINE: No, but we are one of the few that has collision mitigation technology. There is actually only is one other player in this space, and we were actually one company at one time.

JAMES: Ah, okay. Go drama. Let us hear the story! So, does that mean that you are actually doing the interventional breaking and taking and moving the steering wheel?

JUSTINE: No. Again, no intervening with the driver. This is strictly, we want the drivers to be better. We are just trying to give them the tools they need to get there. And we do that. And there is a lot of services that we do. A lot of customization that went into this. I think it is naïve to think that tech is just, you could put it in and walk away. I never have understood that part of tech solutions that are out there that do that. The tech solution is only as good as the person how knows how to use it. And to use it to its maximum potential. So again, safety as a service is a huge part of what I do. I mean, my job is a little interesting. I created it, just because of my background. Like you said, it is extremely unique.

My story is unique. And when I got here, I saw this product being so different than what my boss is. He is a tech guy; he came out of Israel. He started three different tech solution companies and took them IPO, so his perspective was completely different. When I saw this product, I saw all the risk management and the loss mitigation things that you can do with this. Before they were just trying to sell to direct clients. And I said that is not the way to go. Risk Managers will love this stuff. This is what they do all day, and they have better relationships with clients. So, we should be reaching out to the insurance segment. This is a loss mitigation tool, and he was like, I do not even know what that is.

JAMES: Yeah. There is a lot of education, right that comes into play.

JUSTINE: I would say the majority of my job is education, honestly. I am educating my clients and educating the industry, especially, I think, pardon me for saying this, but I think since I have added it and I can, but you know, insurance is antiquated, up until recently. We were slow rolling to get on that new tech ball. We were resisting. I am glad to see that everyone is starting to embrace that, cause I think that there are some brilliant people with some great stuff out there that can change lives and change the way we have been doing things in such a positive way. So, I am happy to be a part of that here.

JAMES: Awesome. Rob?

ROB: Great stuff, Justine. You have a terrific background. And we all fall in insurance one way or another. But I loved that connection that you talked about the saving lives, right? There is a common theme throughout. So, tell me a little bit more about Save Drive Systems, and specifically, what differentiates you from the competitors? So, there is a lot out there, right? Telematics itself is collecting the actual data. You have sensors on the vehicles themselves. You have drive cams as James mentioned. Just looking at your website, I have noticed that you have got some things that are differentiated, that you are kind of calling out. Radar – for all whether a collision detection. The driver alert system. You talked about the human support, you talked about onsite installation where you work a lot with commercial fleets. Maybe just talk about that stuff that you guys do that no one else does.

JUSTINE: Yeah. I mean, I do not know if you guys are, but I always even open my presentations with this too. What I am getting on, to the educational process. Yes. There is so much tech when it comes to that auto industry right now. I am glad that you brought that up cause it is a perfect way to segue into this. You have telematics. Telematics has been around 30 years. I do not like to call what we have telematics, only because then I get through the drudgery of explaining I am not a telematics company. I am not just another telematics company. But the ELD, the GPS tracking, the asset trackers, Dallas keys, backup sensors, all of that is great. But I think the differentiator here in what Safe Drive Systems, what we do, is we are a 360 holistic approach. I have all of these unique tech solutions and I am one vendor. It is going to be in one platform in one place. I did this because I service insurance brokers and carriers. Most clients, their risk profile, and their risk exposure, they need multiple solutions. To think that one tech solution is going to fix all their problems, it is just not. What we do here is can we do a very, very, unique thing.

I do a large claims analysis. I look at the last two-loss runs of the last two years for each client. And then I do an in-depth claims analysis. And then I pair it up with the proper technological solution for that client. And then we work from there. What they need. So again, differentiators, I mean, we could go into each product and I could take you down that route. I do not know if you would want to do that. Just to spit some out. Like the radar, when it comes to the collision avoidance system, our radar is definitely our proprietary technology. It is based on aviation technology. And the reason why it was implemented is that it solves the issue with optic sensors, adverse weather conditions, the visibility problems there. During torrential rains, fog, sleet, snow, hail, and at night, the optic sensor, the rule about it is that if you can’t see, the optic sensor can see. So, think about that. We wanted to fix that problem. So, we added the radar as a means to address that issue. And that’s why radar was so important.

Backup sensors are great and I usually always pair… 90% of my clients take my collision avoidance  system and backup sensors. And the reason for that being is because a lot of people back up into inanimate objects, right? So, we have to equip the car with usually more of the backup sensors. My dashcam is called proof. It is fairly new. We launched it about three months ago. And the biggest differentiator there with that product is we are live streaming, so if you want to see vehicle sets, you can go into that platform, pull it up and see them. I can tell you; this is not me making a bold claim. I am not talking nonsense. Everybody else is recording and putting it in a cloud and you have to request the footage. If you want to know what is going on in your vehicle, you pull it up right then there, everything. All my products, by the way, live. Real-time. When the collision avoidance systems are sending off the alerts for the hazards on the road, it is to the driver, both audio and visual in real-time, while it is happening. Because that is another big piece of us. We are all about proactive, like proactive. Proactive solutions prevent it from getting to the collision part. We want to keep you as safe as possible. So, to be proactive, it needs to be, right then and there. And if it is not, you are just waiting for the ball to drop.

JAMES: Yeah, well look, auto is dangerous. I mean, just in general and it has been fascinating watching what is happened with auto during the pandemic, since March. Severity has gone up; people are driving like maniacs. Just to be straight. And there is certainly something to be said for the observation effect with human beings in general. If people know that their driving behavior is being observed, they drive better. If they know that there are cameras and sensors and it’s being reported and monitored, they drive better. And also, if there’s a technology that can help them, they drive better. I have a Chevy Silverado. It is a big giant truck.

JUSTINE: Chevy has got some collision tech avoidance technology in it. It does not come fully equipped. That is the other problem. Everyone thinks that, oh my car already has that at the OEM level. No, it does not.

JAMES: No, it does not. So, what it has done that saved my butt, is, it’s got proximity, and that it will auto brake. And I will be straight that saved me twice from getting in an accident. And it is pretty impressive technology. I am a pilot, so I fly airplanes every week. And I have a radar on a plane, and I will tell you that the only challenge with aviation radar is you have to turn it off on the ground. Cause it will literally bake people. I mean, you cannot run an airplane radar on the ground because it will particularly damage the eyes of ground workers. So, I am curious, since you said it is aviation-grade radar, certainly, as pilots, we are all trained to turn the radar off when we get on the ground because of the damage will do to people. So, can you walk me through how this is safe for people?

JUSTINE: Yeah. So, it is infrared technology, but it is mounted in this really unique component piece and then it is mounted behind the bumper.

JAMES: So, it is not x-rays then.

JUSTINE: No, it is not, but it was based and ripped from aviation technology because the person who developed this is in Israel and used to fly planes for the military, so yeah.

JAMES: Yeah. That is awesome. The amount of tech that is in a cockpit now is amazing, for helping us. While I am flying, I have got my radar going. I have got my satellite feeds. I have got autopilot running. I have sensors galore on airplanes. I have sensor rays everywhere telling me everything about what is going on around me. And we do not have that in cars to the level that we should. I was a city Councilman here in College Station for two terms and we had some pretty serious accidents with our garbage trucks.

JUSTINE: Sanitation is the biggest waste management. High-risk exposure.

JAMES: Yeah. It is scary. I’m scurred of garbage trucks. These are tanks.

JUSTINE: They just have so many blind spots. That is the problem.

JAMES: It is a giant blind spot. It is like one giant blind spot. And Justine, what really scared me, when I dug into garbage trucks, is the percentage of the fleet that does not even have something as simple as a backup sensor that beeps. They do not have backup cameras. They literally just have two mirrors on the side and that is it. No warnings, no sensors, I mean, there is nothing. So, are you going in and bringing it into your shop and you are putting this hardware on? Are you doing the install for them?

JUSTINE: Yeah. We go to our clients. We have nationwide certified installers that go directly to our clients. That way they do not have any downtime because a lot of our clients make their money through the use of their vehicles. So, if their vehicle is not on the road, they are losing profitability there. So, we make sure that we try to avoid the downtime so that their vehicles can be on the road. But for our larger, especially with a lot of municipalities who have shops, especially buses, I work with a bus company, and they have inhouse shops. So we do the teaching of the in house guys to do the transfers mouth, the malfunctions, if there are any, and teach them how to install because when they have too many vehicles being traded out and coming in and going out, you need to teach them. So, we do teach it in house as well. We send our installers there for like a week and they said they just drill them.

JAMES: That is awesome.

JUSTINE: We do have that option. We have to for larger fleets, they just would be a mess.

JAMES: Awesome. Rob?

ROB: Justine, really fascinating technology. Maybe you can talk about two things for me. Number one, maybe there is, just the types of different deployments, certainly not in all the ones that you have done, but maybe just give folks some examples of different deployments that you have done. And then two, maybe you could talk a little bit more about that relationship with insurance. Is it brokers, is it carriers, you mentioned risk managers? So just kind of bringing it back to that insurance connection.

JUSTINE: Yeah, definitely. We work with, I would say the most prominent industries that we are in, that I have the most clients in, and I have a little bit of everything. But the majority of my clients are trucking, towing, transportation, construction, municipalities, police departments, fire departments, bus companies, sanitation, waste management. And we also see a lot of rent fans, like just servicing companies, like HVAC. I would consider an HVAC or landscapers. We have a lot of service companies as well. Not the bulk of our business. As far as the insurance industry, I think I can release this information. I believe the contracts are signed. We will be part of the ecosystem tech solution that, with AXA XL, we are endorsed already with Berkshire Hathaway Guard, due to an ongoing three-year pilot that we have programmed, we did with them, way back when which was the first time we dipped our hands into the insurance industry and how we got our feet wet and figured out that this was a space that we wanted to be a part of.

My job is that I am business development. So again, a lot of education. I am on a lot of stuff like this, where people, you know I talk about tech. I talk about statistics on road safety and pretty knowledgeable on it at this point. Been in the game for about 2 years. And RIMS Organization, we work pretty heavily. So, I work with a lot of brokers to educate them and we create a nice little synergy and partnership together and help to bring it to the end client. And then with insurance carriers, it is a little bit different form of relationship. It is trying to get them on board. We try to do pilots with their IoT. departments to get a pilot going. So, we take like a nice little niche, like with Berkshire Hathaway, we did the trucking and towing niche. Looking into maybe doing logging for somebody else. It is usually industry-specific. AXA XL is going to be with their construction teams.

So, and we work a lot with risk engineers, right. They are tech-savvy. And they want answers to problems. When a solution comes out, they are on top of it. So, I work really-really heavily with risk managers. I mean, they eat this stuff up. They love learning and they are those guys that, you know, insurance geeks, risk managers are the top of the chain. They are always reading articles, publishing articles, learning new stuff, and best practices. So, we have good relationships there.

ROB: Yeah, that is awesome Justine. And so, I do not know if you are working with these folks at all. You mentioned AXA XL, but shout out to Gary Kaplan and Rose Hall who have been huge supporters of my book, The End of Insurance As We Know It, Did a great job. They are actually featured in Brian Falchuk’s book, The Future of Insurance, from Disruption to Evolution. We had Brian on as a previous guest. So just a blatant shout out to a couple of friends. Supporters.

JAMES: I did not know. I did not know you are buddies with them cause I am too.

JUSTINE: I think we all are on this call.

JAMES: Oh my gosh. We are all name dropping.

JUSTINE: I got invited.

JAMES: Yeah. We had Gary on my other podcast a couple of weeks ago. So, he was on ConTechCrew and we talked all about the ecosystem. It was a few weeks ago when they unveiled it. And it is a neat project. They are leading the way and trying to draw an actual hard connection between tech, the insured, and the insurer. And wire them together, both technically with the data and financially. And I think they are participating in the future of insurance. It’s good, cause they are the largest PNC company in the world. So, it is exciting that, as the largest company in the world, they are not like holding back, they are actually pushing the rest of the industry forward.

JUSTINE: I love it. I think it is innovative. I am so happy to finally see some movement with it. I love that they are breaking ground where no one else was willing to take the chance, and I think that they are going to just continue to reap the benefits. I just love that they are all about their clients.

JAMES: Yeah.

JUSTINE: The carrier does not do much direct sales and does not really ever touch the client. And AXA, I was shocked to learn… I love their business model. The fact that they take such pride in their clients, and that connection and relationship, and they go over and beyond. They do not just have a relationship with the broker.

JAMES: Oh, no, no, no.

JUSTINE: They take care of their client and that is really rare. And I love it. Yeah.

JAMES: Yeah. They are big believers in a direct relationship with the insured and it shows, so, let us talk about the future. Let us wrap the conversation by talking about what is next. There are so many areas we could go when it comes to auto because we could just talk about fully autonomous cars. Like if you want to have a theoretical conversation on will the world needed insurance when all cars are autonomous. By the way, there is a super good series on Amazon that I am watching right now, that is about a guy who dies in an autonomous car crash. And then they, well, he does not die. He gets severely injured and then they scan him. It is called Upload. It is the name of the show. They uploaded his consciousness into VR, and then it turns out he was not actually dying like three episodes later. I am not ruining this series. But they were all shocked. They were like, what do you mean an autonomous car got in an accident? That is impossible. Like, that is what they all say.

So, let us fast forward to the year 2025. I am going to ask you to play Long Island Medium for a second. And I am going to ask you to put your hair up, do it for the fun. Channel Teresa Caputo. Channeling your friend Teresa So, Theresa, tell me if you can channel this. Where are we going with auto?

JUSTINE: Okay. So, I really love that question. I do not get asked it often enough. First of all, I would say that we are not going to be in 2025. Okay, autonomous vehicles are going to be, I think we are about 15 years. I think everyone is a little too optimistic there with when they think it is actually going to come. And I actually do not think that my tech solutions will be outdated at all. And I do not think that the landscape will change as much as everyone thinks it is. I think that it is just going to be a computer determining, which person and which accident is going to be less severe. So, I think that for an accident, you know auto collision profiles, we are just going to see the severity maybe change, which is a great thing, right? Because we want to lose fewer lives. But I think that as long as the car is a weapon, there is going to be an accident. It is just going to be determined by a computer now. So, the hazards of what causes accidents are still going to be there. Human error is not the only aspect of road safety.

JAMES: No, it is the usual suspect, but it is not the only one, right?

JUSTINE: It is not, and I think you are still going to see hazards, and you are going to still see auto collisions. It is just going to look different.

JAMES: Sure. I mean, a deer is still going to run into the road.

JUSTINE:  Oh, I get so much of that. And we have like animal detection because we have pedestrian detection. So, it does do large animal detection obviously. So, let me tell you something. They cause a lot of accidents.

JAMES: 17 years ago, I was driving back from Michigan and I was in a Volkswagen Passat, driving down a small highway in Texas, and I am not kidding. A cow, and not a small cow, a large cow, broke out of her fence and started walking across the highway. And I had to slam my brakes on. I came with, and it was at night too. I came within 5’, 8’ of running ahead into this 1000 pounds or whatever it was. I mean, this thing was huge. It was a massive cow. You are still going to have things that happen. Okay. You are a programmer and you are writing autonomous car software. Who gets preference on surviving? The passenger or the pedestrian?

JUSTINE: Pedestrian.

JAMES: Yeah, I think you have to, and this is like, I have thought about this a lot.

JUSTINE: Pedestrian detection I think is so important. First of all, I am actually scared of driving. Is not that kind of funny guys? I guess I hate driving. I really do. I make my boyfriend drive everywhere. I am like, baby, you are driving. I live eight blocks from him guys. So, I will make him come pick me up.

JAMES: No! Ride your bike, get a segue. Do something. Jeez.

JUSTINE: I hate driving. I think that it is because I look at these stats every day, right? I see claims come in, throughout my journey in all my years. Not just here at Safe Drive, but I know how deadly cars are. And it actually just gives me anxiety to drive, to be perfectly frank with you. And so, I told my boss, as soon as I got here. He installed a collision-avoidance system. I have everything in my car. I have a dashcam, I have everything. I need backup sensors. I have bad eyesight too. So, it is quite a thing. So, I have everything strapped in and I truly believe, and this is not just because I do this. Yeah. This is my tech solution, but I wish that people knew that their OEM personal cars do not come fully equipped with safety features. And I wish that more people would invest in collision mitigation technology because if they did, we would see many fewer stats, so many less severe car accidents. And it helps. I am telling you, it does. It helps you to drive better. And see things that you cannot foresee.

JAMES: But back to the preference question. I think you have to preference pedestrians. The person in the car has a boatload of safety equipment, including airbags and seat belts that give them a fighting shot of actually living through an accident. The pedestrian has nothing. So, there have been a lot of discussions. You are really relegating this. And then, of course, the insurance question is who has the liability then? Is it the software company that wrote the algorithm that preferences the pedestrian? It gets complicated.

JUSTINE: It is going to cause a nightmare.

JAMES: It is going to be a legal nightmare, there is going to have to be a whole bunch of indemnification when you buy a car. You are not going to have to indemnify the dealer and the car.

JUSTINE: But I have to ask you guys this question. I do not know about you, but like, okay. My boyfriend has a fancy car. He loves, I guess, men love cars.

JAMES: Yes.

JUSTINE: He has a Porsche. The new one, I do not know. It looks like a hatchback. It is a four-door. He loves this turbo. Okay. Fine. There is no shot that my boyfriend would ever buy a self-driving car. My boyfriend wants to feel the speed. He wants to feel the luxury. I just do not also know how everyone is talking about like autonomous cars. Like I love an autonomous car, cause I never want to be in the car, but I do not know many people who buy cars do not want to drive them. I just wonder about that too.

ROB: Yeah, Justine, this is a question I actually get a lot, right at different talks that I give around the country. And I always tell people, I kept thinking the same thing. Like why would I ever want an autonomous car or whatever? And then I drove from, Phoenix, Arizona to Albuquerque New Mexico. And I think it was between like Flagstaff and Winslow. I was like, yeah, I wish I had an autonomous car right about now! This is the worst drive or whatever. When you are stuck in traffic, or you are dealing with the commute, like if you are going into Manhattan and back, right, and you were actually trying to drive that rather than taking the MTA or whatever, like, I think there are a lot of scenarios that daily grind driving that in an autonomous vehicle, it is like, wow. I can watch Netflix, or I can be on my phone or check, email, or to do even more work. So, I think you are going to see a mix, but then, I have also said like, think about motorcycles.

Like nobody is autonomously a motorcycle. Why? Because the whole point of having a motorcycle is to drive it for the experience. Exactly. So, I think you will always have… We talked to a CEO at a classic car insurer over in Germany in Europe a few weeks ago, Desiree, so, again, same thing there, right? Like the purpose of having the classic cars to kind of tootle around with it or whatever. So, I think you will always have that segment, but I do think that main just getting from point A to point B, you will free up more time. That is the one resource we all want more of, and just cannot get. No matter how much money you have, there is 24 hours in the day for all of us. So, if you can reclaim more time to do stuff you want to do rather than just your daily commute, I think many people will not take that option.

JUSTINE: Yeah.

JAMES:  I do not want an autonomous motorcycle, but I want an electric motorcycle. Have you guys seen Zero Motorcycles? I mean, oh my goodness.

JUSTINE: That sounds good. I come from a long line of bikers, so my dad was a Harley man and all my uncles, I grew up around bikes.

JAMES: Open your website, open your web browser, and type in https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/, and go check that out. That will blow your mind. They have some incredible machines. And Rob, I do not think I told you. I am mopeder as well. I have got some fantastic mopeds in Michigan that I cruise along the shoreline of Lake Michigan with.

JUSTINE: Well this is quite a good-looking bike. I would get one myself!

JAMES: I am telling you.

JUSTINE: I mean, it is more of a, so I grew up around Harleys, but my significant other is a Ducati person.

JAMES: I love Ducati’s.

JUSTINE: So, this is more, yeah. So, this is more of that speed.

JAMES: It is, but there is no sound right. So, no shifting, no vibration, no fumes, no sound. It is completely silent. And a 116-foot pounds of torque, which puts it above at any gas turning engine. It is incredible. And I go to Moto GP, which is the big motorcycle race down in Austin at Circuit of the Americas. And it will light your heart on fire, man. It is it is incredible. Well, let us get back. Let us wrap it up. Where can people find out more information? You want to talk to risk managers. You want to talk to insurers. Where can they find out more information about your company?

JUSTINE: Yeah. So, of course, our website’s a great resource. I am a great resource. You can always email me, reach out. I work 24/7 unfortunately. So yeah, just reach out to RIMS Organization. We work heavily with them. They have a lot of information on us as well, but obviously our website I think is the best way to get us.

JAMES: Okay. And it is SafeDriveSystems.com, right?

JUSTINE: Yep.

JAMES: Okay. have you ever met the Long Island Medium and if so, what is she like?

JUSTINE: No, I have never met her. Isn’t that funny? She lives out East more towards like the Hamptons area. Or at least that is where she originates from. A lot of people, I do not think she even lives here anymore, but, no, I have never met her. I have met some really cool people though, in the Hamptons.

JAMES: Who is the coolest person?

JUSTINE: Alec Baldwin. I used to go to his wife. I love him. I do not know about you guys, but I find him to be… 30 Rock was one of my favorite shows. It is complicated. I laugh every time I put it on. So, his wife taught yoga. My mom is such a Yogi, so we used to go to her classes, and he was in there a couple of times. So, my brother sees him at the bagel store all the time around from my mom’s house, but they do not like him out here, so he gets to meet him there. He was wearing no mask in the bagel store out there, and then he pronounced that he had Corona Virus. So, everyone was not too pleased with him. Yeah.

JAMES:  That is awesome.

JUSTINE: Yeah, John Mayer, saw him so many times at Surf Lodge in Montauk.

JAMES: Yeah, well, it is a great place to spend the summer. Not so much in the winter. But a wonderful place to hang out.

JUSTINE: We usually go to the city. That is why we have basketball.

JAMES: Exactly. Long Island does have it really good. Well, look, it has been a great conversation. Rob Galbraith as always, thank you for joining and co-hosting. It is always a pleasure to see you, sir. Before we say goodbye, just want to see if there is, if you are hearing anything in the ether, in the InsureTech news space, if you have heard anything out there, any announcements going on, any other news that has come across your desk as of recent.

ROB: So, just two quick things, James. A shout out to Duck Creek Technologies who had their IPO this week. So, we are continuing a run of some great InsureTech IPO’s following Lemonade. And I am actually speaking, as part of their V formation Conference, I spoke with their CMO Scott Fitzgerald, that is going to be broadcast on Wednesday of next week, which is right after this gets, right before this drops. So, definitely go and check that out online.

And then, right around the corner of September, it is going to be what they call September to Remember World Tour. So, InsureTech Connect, and unfortunately, we cannot all gather in Las Vegas, like we typically do. We are actually doing it with, the DIA, which is a big, conference in Europe. So, they are doing a joint world tour and there are going to be events throughout September. I am actually speaking at the Turkish event on September 16th. But yeah, definitely just kind of tune in, look for that. Not going to Vegas this year, guys, but there is going to be a lot of yeah stops along the world tour and so many great companies presentations. If you want to know more about InsureTech, look for the ITC plus DIA world tour in September.

JAMES: Awesome. And I have got two news articles I saw this week that I thought was pretty interesting. HCL Technologies is a leading global tech company in collaboration with R3, they are an enterprise blockchain software firm. They launched BUILDINGBLOCK. It is a blockchain platform that streamline business property insurance for multinational companies. It is called BUILDINGBLOCK. It is either by HCL and R3. Theoretically, it enables insurance companies to craft a master policy document. And this is from, Express Computer, by the way, that magazine. They can create a master plan policy document, enable real-time data flow, obviously cryptographically secure it, immutable manner, so they lock it. You cannot change it once it is written. And it has all the typical benefits of blockchain.  We have been talking about blockchain, but it is interesting seeing developments actually releasing products we released, and this is one of those products that is streamlined around business property insurance policies. So, you can go check that out. It is called BUILDINGBLOCK.

The other piece of news because of COVID and all kinds of difficulties with inspections, the loss adjustment business technical services, develop a new tech to integrate, manage their specialty lines claims. They were trying to get around having to always be face to face. So, the tech can be used on a smartphone camera handled by an insured’s employee. Integra adjusters can then, directly remotely control and capture footage of damages with inspections, as well as the monitoring of repairs. What they are doing, is they are creating an app that allows them to have more control over what they look at. And all the user has to do is install the app and then the employee does not have to travel to the claim site, but they do control that the camera’s actually on, and they can see the video in the photos. So, it is pretty neat seeing some of these remote inspection apps. We have talked about them, but you are actually seeing one that is come out. In this case, from Integra Technical Services.

So those are the two news articles from this week. Again, always fun talking InsureTech. To all of our InsurTech Geeks out there, keep geeking out, have a good time! Justine. Thanks for joining us. You are hilarious.

JUSTINE: Oh, thank you so many guys, for having me. It was such a pleasure.

JAMES: Yeah. Awesome. And, Rob, stay cool in the heat over there, and make sure you do not forget that today is still your anniversary and you got to do something soon!

ROB: I am on it, man. I am on it!

JUSTINE: You better get that gift from Amazon delivered by tomorrow morning!

JAMES:  Yes. Just say honey, COVID made Amazon late. That is all you got to do!

JUSTINE: Yeah. There was a delay in the shipment!

JAMES: Yeah. Again, this has been the InsurTech Geek podcast, podcast powered by JBKnowledge. That is JBKnowledge.com. It is all about technology that is transforming and disrupting the insurance world. I have been your host, James Benham. That is JamesBenham.com with cohost Rob Galbraith, EndOfInsurance.com. Big thanks to Jim Greenlee, our Podcast Producer, Kara Dalton-Arro, our Creative Producer, and Adéle Waldeck our Transcriptionist. And thank you for joining us today. Remember InsurTech Geeks, keep geeking out.

See you next time!