Hidalgo: Buy Better, Buy Smarter

Opportunity:

Our software application will provide prospective car buyers with a better informed and more cost efficient method of selecting the perfect vehicle for them. Hidalgo is a customer profiling platform that partners with insurance companies in order to determine what specific vehicle a consumer should seek to purchase by taking into account tracked data points that insurance companies collect on their insured customers. Given annual vehicle sales of $17M in 2016, there is a huge opportunity for Hidalgo to come in and remove some of the friction involved in the current sales process. Many individuals do not have a strong foundation of knowledge with which to purchase vehicles. As such, many individuals may be buying cars that do not fit their driving style or make emotion based purchase decisions. By removing some of the friction of uninformed purchasing, we hope to boost sales for manufacturers, save costs for buyers, and reduce claims for insurance companies.

Solution:

By taking the data points such as average driving speed, make and model of car, and braking behavior, we can build a large database of driver types and vehicles. For example, if an individual fits the category of a hard braker who likes to drive fast but never has an accident, Hidalgo would recommend a high performance car that fits this specific profile. It would not recommend a slow Volvo. This match process also allows the consumer to save on insurance when they purchase a car that the  insurance company has recommended, a car that matches the individuals driving style leading to safer driving. The more a car fits an individual’s driving style, the less surprises there are while driving resulting in less accidents. Less accidents means less claims processed by insurance companies, allowing them to save substantially on claims processing. The increased saving is then passed partially on to the consumer reducing their car insurance payments.

Effectiveness, Commercial Promise, and Competition:

For individuals who are price sensitive, the promise of lower insurance payments on their car can greatly impact their car purchasing decisions. Additional savings will result from reduced repair and maintenance costs as individuals’ driving style will better match the vehicles physical components. Individuals will also be able to create a profile and add in their vehicle and style preferences allowing them to choose without feeling like they’re being forced to buy a car.

There is quite a bit of commercial promise due to the large size of  the car buying and insurance industry. Insurance companies can maximize their returns by having to spend less on claims processing, which frees up capital to be deployed elsewhere. Car manufacturers benefit by producing cars that better match the buyers in their target markets and segments and boost sales. Hidalgo will earn revenue by taking a portion of claims processing savings as well as a portion of referral fees from a manufacturer when an individual buys a car through our platform.

The platform’s main competitor will be in house data teams of each insurance company. We believe we can avoid competition through the advantage of data collection across different insurance companies and standardization of data within the Hidalgo platform. This allows insurance companies to reduce their own tech development costs while having access to a larger set of data, making the recommendation software smarter and more accurate.

Suggestions / Improvements:

  • Improved accuracy of recommendations over time as data set grows
  • Improved connectivity so user accounts can be linked via bluetooth to onboard computers within any car
  • Partner with car producers to create more sensor points on a car that can be used to inform buyers’ decisions

Sources:

https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/10-steps-to-finding-the-right-car-for-you.html

https://www.supermoney.com/2018/01/average-cost-car-accident-pay/

https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-auto-insurance

https://www.gq.com/gallery/the-gq-car-buying-guide

https://blog.joemanna.com/progressive-snapshot-review/

Team Members:

Pavlina Plasilova, Kelly de Klerk, Yuxiao Zhang, Aziz Munir, Megan McDonald

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