Jul 30, 2025 10:45:00 AM | 3 min read
There’s a lot of buzz in the mobility world right now - four wheels, an empty driver seat, and a marquee with your name on top when it arrives. Every headline screams about the self-driving car revolution: “Robots Will Chauffeur Us Into the Future!”
It’s incredibly cool to see - although, while everyone’s eyes are on autonomous vehicles, they’re missing the real revolution happening right now. Insurance that actually fits how people use their cars today.
The reality is that most people aren’t zipping around in self-driving cars, at least not yet. They’re dropping their kids off at school, picking up passengers for Uber, listing their car on a peer-to-peer platforms, and squeezing in a trip to the car wash - sometimes all before noon!
Driving Has Evolved, But Insurance Hasn’t Kept Pace
Traditional auto insurance wasn’t built for this mixed-use reality. It assumes your car has one job: get you from point A to point B, maybe with some groceries in the back. But that’s not how modern drivers operate.
One vehicle might be used personally, commercially, and semi-commercially all in the same day. Each use comes with a unique and distinct risk profile. The problem is that traditional insurance policies aren’t great at switching gears. The inability to adapt to how modern drivers operate their vehicles creates blurry coverage gaps. Many times, this translates to drivers paying too much for coverage they don’t need, or believing they are covered against certain risks but are operating during an uninsured period.
Coverage Gaps: A Hiding Place for Risk
Let’s say you’re a car-sharing host. You take your vehicle to get detailed, grab some gas, swing by the DMV, and then hand off the keys to your next car sharing guest. Technically, most of that is business activity. But is it covered? Not by a standard personal auto policy. Commercial policies? You’ll pay a hefty premium for a ton of extra coverage that you’ll likely never use.
This is the trap that modern car owners looking to generate revenue from their vehicle get stuck in. They know they are covered when their vehicle is used by a guest on a car-sharing platform, but what about the times they use the vehicle themselves?
This is where “off-trip” or “off-app” insurance programs come in — designed to cover your vehicle during business-related use outside of a rideshare trip. It’s a niche solution, but one that is tailored specifically to this modern use case. It’s not as flashy as AI robotaxis, but it can keep people protected and premiums commercially viable. More importantly, it creates a price that is affordable for modern car owners.
Insurance That Meets Drivers Where They Already Are
If you book your gigs, track your miles, and get paid in one place — why not insure your car there, too? This is the value and promise of embedded insurance.
These embedded experiences are smoother, smarter, and can offer more attractive pricing. They pull real-time data from the apps you’re already using (with your permission, of course) and are designed to activate coverage when it’s needed (like when you go online to start ride-hailing) and turn off when it’s not (like when you’re off-duty grabbing a burger).
The end result? Less friction. Fewer forms. Better prices. And no more, “Wait, am I covered right now?” panic moments.
It’s Not About Replacing Drivers - It’s About Supporting Them
While tech companies dream of an autonomous future, the rest of us are focused on making sure the drivers out there today don’t get stuck with outdated insurance products that make it increasingly difficult to earn a living for their small businesses. The biggest gains in mobility right now are practical, not futuristic - and they’re already impacting millions of people.
The best part? These changes aren’t just good for drivers and car owners. They’re good for insurers, too. Real-time usage data shortens the insurance development cycle, leads to more personalized products, and reduces risk across the board.
Closing Thoughts
The driverless future will eventually arrive and it’s going to be amazing! But until then, impactful innovation is happening in insurance - the kind that makes sense for how modern vehicle owners use their cars.
It’s not as flashy as a self-driving car, but it’s flexible, fair, and fine-tuned for each individual. And for now, that’s the kind of revolution we should all get behind.