Partner Spotlight: Nexar—Better driving habits lead to safer roads

We’ve come a long way in one year

As we begin the new year, I’ve been reflecting on the incredible progress Nationwide is making with regard to developing innovations that leverage technology to protect our members.

We reached a milestone in 2018 with more than a dozen exciting new partnerships to date through our Venture Capital (VC) organization including Betterview, BlueVine, blooom, Insurify, Next Insurance, Matic and Sure.

Last June, we announced our plans to open a new innovation center in the Arena District near our Columbus-based headquarters. This innovation center will be like none other in the world and we anticipate it will open later this year.

As we invest in innovative solutions, strategic partnerships are an important part of our approach. We believe that by joining forces with the right partners, we can co-create new solutions that make future solutions possible now.

Throughout 2019, I’ll share updates on our innovation work by highlighting some of our partnerships that are reaping real benefits in new and novel ways.

Co-creating value with Nexar

First up is our partnership with mobility startup Nexar, one of our VC investment partners. I should note here that our VC approach is unique. While the market is flush with venture capital, Nationwide isn’t seeking to make monetary investments in just any startup. We strive to invest in companies that align with problems we’re already trying to solve for our customers—members and/or business partners. As we deploy dollars, we seek partners with whom we can be more than just a source of capital. Most often, we want to truly partner, where we build solutions together that we couldn’t build on our own.

With Nexar, we’ve made some exciting progress to make the roads safer. Nexar is a mobility startup focused on promoting safer driving. By applying deep learning and artificial intelligence technologies to millions of recorded driven miles, Nexar provides collision prevention, detection, reconstruction, as well as traffic light prediction and other data products to the insurance and automotive industries. Its dashcam technology, device and app connect vehicles into an almost-futuristic safe-driving network, improving the roads for everyone.

Nationwide and Nexar pilot project in NYC

Quickly after the announcement of our venture investment in Nexar, our commercial lines telematics experts started working with them. Together, we developed a pilot program in New York City, using Nexar dashcams in the fleet vehicles of a Nationwide commercial lines client, HASC Center, a non-profit agency that provides services—including transportation—for children with special needs. During the 16-week program, HASC Center drivers demonstrated significantly safer driving habits by the end of the program, showing a substantial decrease in the key driving behaviors identified as most likely to lead to accidents.

During the pilot, Nexar installed its dashcam technology in 20 HASC Center fleet vehicles. Over the course of 16 weeks, the dashcams monitored more than 3,000 hours of fleet vehicle operation and more than 20,000 miles of mostly city travel.

The pilot program determined that, collectively, HASC Center’s fleet drivers demonstrated improved driving behavior from the beginning of the trial to the end. For example, hard-braking maneuvers decreased 70 percent from five hard brakes per 100 miles to one-and-a-half hard brakes per 100 miles.

A follow-up survey of the pilot showed that 78 percent of fleet managers indicated that dashcam technology had a positive or very positive impact on driver behavior, and 67 percent of drivers reported that they were comfortable with dashcam technology present in their vehicle.

Partnering to make a real difference today—and in the future

This partnership with Nexar and the pilot program with HASC Center demonstrates Nationwide’s commitment to innovation by leveraging technology to better protect policyholders, their employees and their clients. The future of safer roads is going to rely on our ability to use technology to predict and prevent collisions, ultimately promoting safer driving.

It's just one small example that shows Nationwide’s ongoing commitment to our members and to developing innovations that meet customers’ needs now and in the future. Look for more exciting partnerships from us in 2019.