Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#42Hey. I built Cuvva. Exciting to see it posted on HN, causing a lot of traffic to our site! Cuvva is currently UK-only. Here if you drive a friend's car, you're normally only covered for damage to third parties. With Cuvva, it's a full comprehensive policy. This is not typically relevant for the US. However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US.
I think coverage by the mile or the hour for primary drivers would be of interest to a lot of car owners in US urban areas. An existing player, Metro Mile, markets their product as pay-per-mile, but the majority of the cost actually comes from a fixed per-month fee. Of course that might be because what I want makes no actuarial sense...
Everything makes actuarial sense if they charge you enough...
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#43Hey. I built Cuvva. Exciting to see it posted on HN, causing a lot of traffic to our site! Cuvva is currently UK-only. Here if you drive a friend's car, you're normally only covered for damage to third parties. With Cuvva, it's a full comprehensive policy. This is not typically relevant for the US. However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US.
>> "However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US."
I'm pretty sure there is a small but enthusiastic market in the US for sharing expensive sports cars, either through formal timesharing arrangements or by going in with a few friends. Formal timesharing clubs exist but the insurance is badly organized and stupidly expensive.
It would be great if I could go in on a Ferrari with 9 of my buddies and only pay for insurance when I'm driving it every tenth day.
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. It's apparently a little-known fact that this even applies to rental cars, even though the rental car companies do their best to not tell you this. The wikipedia page even mentions this: "Although frequently not explicitly stated, US car rental companies are required by respective state law to provide minimal liability coverage, except in California, where the driver is solely responsible." Of course, minimal…
> It's apparently a little-known fact that this even applies to rental cars, even though the rental car companies do their best to not tell you this. True, but only up to ~30 days. To continue to be covered longer than that, you need a separate policy, or you need to return and re-rent a rental car every 30 days or so. > Of course, minimal liability is only good if you have no assets whatsoever... Having nothing to t…
If you rent cars for > 30 days, you're probably better off buying one...
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Indeed. It's apparently a little-known fact that this even applies to rental cars, even though the rental car companies do their best to not tell you this. The wikipedia page even mentions this: "Although frequently not explicitly stated, US car rental companies are required by respective state law to provide minimal liability coverage, except in California, where the driver is solely responsible." Of course, minimal…
In addition to that, most personal car insurance policies cover rentals, and every credit card I've ever seen provides insurance for cars rented with that credit card. The average renter is covered by three different policies (the rental company's policy, their personal auto policy, and their credit card, although they don't perfectly overlap and may not cover everything you'd want) before the rental company tries to…
Credit cards generally only cover the cost of the rental car, I've not seen one that provides liability coverage. So if you don't have a vehicle of your own, which would provide such coverage, the little-known rental car policy is what saves you from having to fork over extra cash for liability coverage.
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's apparently a little-known fact that this even applies to rental cars, even though the rental car companies do their best to not tell you this. True, but only up to ~30 days. To continue to be covered longer than that, you need a separate policy, or you need to return and re-rent a rental car every 30 days or so. > Of course, minimal liability is only good if you have no assets whatsoever... Having nothing to t…
If you rent cars for > 30 days, you're probably better off buying one...
Depends on your situation. Sometimes you want the flexibility of a rental care rental scenario. Perhaps you're not ready to commit to a purchase or a 3+ year lease. You'll pay more for the rental, but once you're above a 30 day rental period, you can get a discount.
If I have a rental car, I can return it anywhere in the country whenever I want if its from a major brand, with the only transaction necessary being a charge on my credit card.
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#47Hey. I built Cuvva. Exciting to see it posted on HN, causing a lot of traffic to our site! Cuvva is currently UK-only. Here if you drive a friend's car, you're normally only covered for damage to third parties. With Cuvva, it's a full comprehensive policy. This is not typically relevant for the US. However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US.
Not sure if this makes sense in the US, but I actually wanted something like this when I was selling a car that we no longer used. As a substitute we had to buy a full day of insurance from our primary carrier when we were showing the car and letting potential buyers test drive it (we always met a good distance from our home). I know the rate varies per car and driver but for us it cost about $28 per day and it didn't feel convenient to get (website or calling customer service).
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Car insurance in the US is quite odd when you think about it. It's mandatory and if you don't live in a city so is a car so defacto you need to buy it. On top of that that doesn't actually cover your car! At the minimum level only cars you damage are covered so if you get hit by someone without insurance they are covered, you are not. Huge amounts of regulatory capture are involved and in my state (PA) it's almost im…
What's odd about that? It would be weird if driving were a solitary activity, but when you drive you place significant risk on other people. You can easily use a car to cause damage that greatly exceeds what an average person can pay, so to ensure that you don't leave others in the lurch, they require you to carry liability insurance. They don't care one bit if you damage your own car beyond your ability to cover it,…
I just always felt a more equitable distribution of funds (as PA is a no fault state) is to have the people who have $100,000 cars to buy the insurance as they are the ones with the disposable income to afford it. The guy making 8 dollars an hour at Walmart with his 900 dollar beater isn't getting much value from that set up.
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's odd about that? It would be weird if driving were a solitary activity, but when you drive you place significant risk on other people. You can easily use a car to cause damage that greatly exceeds what an average person can pay, so to ensure that you don't leave others in the lurch, they require you to carry liability insurance. They don't care one bit if you damage your own car beyond your ability to cover it,…
I just always felt a more equitable distribution of funds (as PA is a no fault state) is to have the people who have $100,000 cars to buy the insurance as they are the ones with the disposable income to afford it. The guy making 8 dollars an hour at Walmart with his 900 dollar beater isn't getting much value from that set up.
[deleted]
Re: Cuvva – Car Insurance by the Hour
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's odd about that? It would be weird if driving were a solitary activity, but when you drive you place significant risk on other people. You can easily use a car to cause damage that greatly exceeds what an average person can pay, so to ensure that you don't leave others in the lurch, they require you to carry liability insurance. They don't care one bit if you damage your own car beyond your ability to cover it,…
I just always felt a more equitable distribution of funds (as PA is a no fault state) is to have the people who have $100,000 cars to buy the insurance as they are the ones with the disposable income to afford it. The guy making 8 dollars an hour at Walmart with his 900 dollar beater isn't getting much value from that set up.
What exactly would you propose should be done to place the burden on the guy with the $100,000 car? If you don't require that the guy with the beater buy insurance, all you're doing is setting him up to be bankrupted of whatever little he does have if he's at fault in an accident. And what if he crashes into another poor slob making $8 an hour at the Wal-Mart who managed to take out a loan to buy a slightly nicer car? Or what if he cripples that person for life, and they require constant medical care for decades? You're setting people up to be screwed a lot more than they need to be.
(Note that the no-fault status of PA doesn't really matter here, because it just means that if both drivers have no-fault insurance, they can't sue the other driver for minor injuries. Property damage and serious injuries are still fair game.)
If you do require insurance, but have the cost of the insurance scale neatly with the cost of the car it covers, then you'll either have a really low limit on liability which brings back all the problems above, or you'll need to subsidize the insurance somehow.
Overall, it seems unfair to say that a person is allowed to put other people at significant risk for property damage and injury without paying for what that risk actually costs. If you don't like that this is more burdensome to the poor than to the rich, I think that more general schemes to alleviate poverty, like government assistance, are the way to go, because car insurance is only one of many, many ways that life is disproportionately expensive when you're poor.