Ford, Arity enter UBI data partnership

Ford and Arity, a telematics-data division of Allstate, have entered a partnership under which drivers of Ford and Lincoln connected cars can opt in to having Arity score their data for usage-based insurance purposes.

The companies say the partnership will increase the amount of connected-car data coming into Arity's Drivesight score, which is licensed to insurers -- not just used by Allstate -- and provides a view into a driver's habits for rating purposes.

Most telematics data comes in from mobile apps or plug-in dongles, but "you can foresee a role in the future where this is where a good chunk of the data comes from," says Gary Hallgren, president of Arity.

"What you get directly from a vehicle is different than what you get from an OBD device or a mobile phone," says Gary Hallgren. "We want to open this pipeline and create accurate models across these data sets."

This is the first telematics service provider that Ford has partnered with, according to Alex Purdy, director of business operations, enterprise connectivity, Ford Motor Company. Ford has direct integrations for insurance programs with State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual and Metromile. It also works with Nationwide as an underwriter for Ford Insure and Lincoln Motor Insure, which are usage-based insurance programs the automaker offers directly. It's also a member of Verisk's telematics data exchange.

"Ford’s connected vehicle software is constantly evolving as we aim to offer our customers the best possible data services products and vehicle ownership experience," says Purdy. "As part of this continual improvement, we are always exchanging ideas with our business customers and monitoring data quality to help provide the best possible products for our customers."