Reduced Insurance Claims Associated with Honda Collision Warning System

A combined forward collision and lane departure warning system available on the Honda Accord is reducing insurance claims, according to new analysis by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In the first real-world study of a crash avoidance system on a high-volume, non-luxury vehicle, Honda’s system was found to reduce insurance claims for damage to other vehicles by 14 percent. It cut claims for injuries to occupants of the equipped vehicles by 27 percent and claims for injuries to other road users by 40 percent.

The rate of property damage liability (PDL) claims was 14 percent lower for vehicles with forward collision and lane departure warning than for those without.

PDL covers damage caused by the insured vehicle to someone else’s vehicle or property. Claims for front-to-rear crashes that forward collision warning systems are intended to address are common for this type of insurance, and previous studies of front crash prevention systems found statistically significant reductions in PDL claim frequency.

In earlier studies, forward collision warning systems without autobrake from Mercedes-Benz and Volvo resulted in PDL frequency reductions of 7 percent. Systems that included autobrake had reductions of 10-14 percent.

Frequency under collision coverage, which pays for damage to the insured vehicle, was 4 percent lower with Honda’s warning system, though the reduction wasn’t statistically significant. Effects on collision claims would be expected to be weaker than the effects on PDL because collision claims include many single-vehicle crashes that wouldn’t be addressed by the technology. That pattern was observed in the earlier analyses of front crash prevention systems as well.

Notably, collision claim severity, or average loss payment per claim, fell by $409 with the warning system. This indicates that many crashes that aren’t prevented by the feature are mitigated. Previously studied warning systems didn’t show declines in collision severity, and the difference may have to do with the location of the equipment on the vehicle. Honda’s system relies on a camera located inside the vehicle, while the other systems use external radar sensors that can be easily damaged, pushing up repair costs in crashes that aren’t avoided.

Injury claim frequencies also fell with the warning system. Bodily injury liability coverage, which pays for injuries to occupants of other vehicles or other people on the road, declined 40 percent. Medical payment insurance, which covers injuries to occupants of the insured vehicle, fell 27 percent. Personal injury protection, which is sold in states with no-fault insurance systems and covers injuries to occupants of the insured vehicle regardless of who is at fault, fell 11 percent, but the result wasn’t statistically significant.