this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2024
1462 points (93.7% liked)

Technology

59427 readers
3085 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

GEICO, the second-largest vehicle insurance underwriter in the US, has decided it will no longer cover Tesla Cybertrucks. The company is terminating current Cybertruck policies and says the truck “doesn’t meet our underwriting guidelines.”

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 357 points 1 month ago (4 children)
[–] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 195 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Chozo@fedia.io 122 points 1 month ago (3 children)

With some rofl on the side.

[–] Cadeillac@lemmy.world 43 points 1 month ago

For Elon this means Relying On Father's Luxuries

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] 2ugly2live@lemmy.world 184 points 1 month ago (4 children)

God, I hope other places follow. I work in insurance and not only is everything about the cybertruck an absolute fucking nightmare to source, let alone find a shop for, every single goddamn owner is like the most insufferable chod. That goes for women too. Tesla drivers could already be a problem, but the truck owners are like regular Tesla owners gone feral.

[–] Mr_Blott@feddit.uk 20 points 1 month ago (20 children)

I hope other places follow

Are they actually allowed to sell these pieces of shit elsewhere?

Also is anyone else stupid enough to buy one?

load more comments (20 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 166 points 1 month ago (43 children)

Pretty sure they were one of the last major companies that would...

Even if warranty pays for repairs to it, if it damages anything else the insurance still has to pay.

The article mentions multiple examples of them just randomly shutting down during operation. That's already bad. But this is going to be it's first winter, it's not surprising insurers don't want to deal with it. They deal with large numbers, it's not a question of "if" like an individual owner, its "when" for the insurer

[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 52 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Class action lawsuits are gonna be a mother fucker

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 85 points 1 month ago (11 children)

Class action lawsuits are gonna be a mother fucker

Part of the purchase agreement of a Tesla agreeing to binding arbitration. This means no class action suit. You can opt out of this within the first 30 days, but you have to send a letter requesting it.

How many Tesla owners do you think do that?

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 52 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That assumes the court finds that enforceable. Usually they do, but a few times recently, they've said it's not.

[–] gramie@lemmy.ca 56 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That's one of the nice things about the law in Quebec. Binding arbitration clauses are illegal.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bluGill@fedia.io 23 points 1 month ago

i don't own a tesla, so if their cars injure me I can sue them*

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (42 replies)
[–] Pogogunner@sopuli.xyz 137 points 1 month ago (20 children)

More importantly, Anderson has eight vehicles. GEICO is only choosing to terminate the insurance coverage from Cybertruck and is actively pursuing renewal of his vehicle coverage for the rest. This leaves no doubt that GEICO’s issue is directly related to the Tesla Cybertruck and not to Anderson or other factors.

Why would someone own 8 vehicles?

Robert added, “It makes no sense, as there are other, riskier cars out there. Let me know if you recommend any insurer for the truck. I have eight cars with an amazing record. I will be canceling my entire Geico policy!! Bye-bye!”

I can't think of a vehicle that is more likely to be a risk to others than the Cybertruck. I'm sure insurance adjusters see how people use Tesla FSD in spite of its shortcomings. The truck is heavy as hell and breaks in all sorts of ways others vehicles don't.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 124 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Also, there have been no independent crash tests done so no insurance company can accurately assess the risk, so this is wholly unsurprising.

Tesla have allegedly done their own crash tests, but they still have not released the data. It's kinda what you'd expect when a government-regulation-hating techbro designs a "I got mine fuck you" vehicle.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 33 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If Geico, and presumably soon others, are angering the chuds by refusing to insure this, independent crash tests definitely occurred and they were not favorable.

You don't have to be an obnoxious YouTuber to crash a car.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

If Geico, and presumably soon others, are angering the chuds by refusing to insure this, independent crash tests definitely occurred and they were not favorable.

When I said no independent crash tests had been performed, I was specifically referring to the IIHS since they're the only ones who opinion really matters and they've stated they have not tested any Cybertruck. But yes, regardless of whether Tesla's internal crash tests were performed by their staff or some other testing lab, the fact that they're sitting on the results clearly indicates that they know just how poorly the crumplezone-less sharp-edged quality-uncontrolled ketaminemobiles fare.

[–] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ahhh, that’s a reason that makes sense. Much better than the article itself. Thanks.

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

To be clear, I don't know if that's why GEICO is cancelling policies on Cybertrucks, but I'd bet heavily it's a contributing factor. It could be that they decided the risk was worth it, until the trucks actually started coming out and the sheer number of recalls due to shitty manufacturing was just too much.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Why would someone own 8 vehicles?

He might be too poor to be able to afford more than that.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Why would someone own 8 vehicles?

Why does anyone have anything? If they can afford to collect the things they are interested in, they will have many of those kinds of things.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Zak@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why would someone own 8 vehicles?

Car collectors exist, and I have the impression quite a few of them are among the Cybertruck's early adopters.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (16 replies)
[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 135 points 1 month ago (8 children)

No word from the insurance company itself? This whole article seems to be based on a single tweet by a cybertruck owner. For all we know his might be modded in a way that they dropped the insurance on it.

[–] fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 86 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

More specifically, the only source the article even gives is a link to a reddit post with a screenshot of the tweet, of which doesn't have a direct link to the tweet. This is half assed journalism at best, considering they even quoted the original screenshot wrong.

Edit: lol they couldn't even get the person's name straight. It changed from Robert Stevenson to Anderson after the email portion. Why's this article even here?

[–] ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why’s this article even here?

Anything Elon bad = upvotes

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)

This isn’t new. They’ve dropped cybertrucks before, and they’re not the only company to drop/straight up refuse to take them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CyberStuck/comments/1ejtwkt/insurance_wont_cover_my_cybertruck_so_i_cant/

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] ThePantser@lemmy.world 119 points 1 month ago (6 children)

Why are insurance companies the ones making the rational decision about saying it's a dangerous piece of shit and not our transportation regulators? It needs to be banned.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 82 points 1 month ago (5 children)

I don't think insurance companies care of the trucks are dangerous per se. They care if they are expensive to repair, or prone to accidents which could attach liability to the policy holder and thereby the insurance company.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 36 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I keep telling conservatives this. It makes sense to have some form of suspicion around a message when some corporation has a profit motive behind it. For instance, climate change and companies selling solar panels (although I wish they wouldn't put SO much effort into that faint connection).

However, that also applies for the inverse - that when insurance drops coverage for Florida homes, it's because climate change is real and they know it will hurt their bottom line.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 19 points 1 month ago

Funny enough, that's exactly what the article says.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] lengau@midwest.social 49 points 1 month ago

Because automobile regulation in the US is an absolute joke.

[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 35 points 1 month ago

Because insurance companies are filled with bean-counters (not intended as an insult, I'm a bean-counter in a different field) who want to come out ahead. That's why the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) exists. You'd think organization that does crash tests and promotes new technology would be a government organization, but nope, it's insurance providers that want to minimize payouts.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 24 points 1 month ago

because it aligns with their financial incentives.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I don't see anything in the article suggesting it's particularly dangerous, only that it's very expensive to fix, and in a collision will probably cause significant damage to the other vehicle (though that doesn't mean it'll necessarily cause injury).

The US doesn't exactly approve or deny vehicles in general; any vehicle that conforms to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards can be sold, as far as I know. And I don't see any section that covers safety of the other party in a collision, unfortunately. Maybe write your reps and suggest they add one.

load more comments (3 replies)

Go try to get insurance for a Lambo or a nice exotic.

Good luck giving that free market talk to the insurance sales guy.

[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 110 points 1 month ago

In before trump’s new monkey calls the Gecko a pedo

[–] apocalypticat@lemmy.world 86 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Next do lifted pickup trucks please!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 84 points 1 month ago (4 children)

GEICO claiming this isn't true

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/7/24264330/geico-insurance-coverage-cybertruck-cancelled-dropped-policy

"In an email to The Verge, Geico pushed back. “Geico has coverage available nationwide for the Tesla Cybertruck,” Geico spokesperson Ross Feinstein said. Feinstein did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about individual dropped policies. "

So maybe it was something VERY specific to this persons use of the truck?

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] lol_idk@lemmy.ml 79 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 50 points 1 month ago (31 children)

those things are very poorly made and all the most important parts are made of cheap plastic that an average person can literally rip off with his or her bare hands

load more comments (31 replies)
[–] w3dd1e@lemm.ee 28 points 1 month ago (13 children)

Semi-unrelated but insurance as a whole is bonkers right now and I’m not sure how much the average person knows. I work on commercial real estate. The whole industry is having to review tons of insurance waiver requests because insurance in some properties is out of control. Business either can’t get it for can’t afford it. Especially, in flood zones. I’m actually kind of worried about the damage these hurricanes are doing in the US. Not just in the lives lost, which is devastating, but also the financial damage of all the uninsured losses.

[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

Climate change is a big reason for the policy denials for property insurance. What wasn’t risky 20 years ago is much riskier today. Data doesn’t lie.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] KonalaKoala@lemmy.world 27 points 1 month ago

Now that little gecko who works for GEICO will probably tell you "You can save a load of money by switching to GEICO, and its so easy a caveman can do it, but we refuse to insure that abomination you call a Tesla Cybertruck that needs to be road illegal everywhere"

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 23 points 1 month ago (26 children)

Warren Buffet refuses to insure Elon Musk

aka the battle of geriatric nepo babies

load more comments (26 replies)
[–] Zier@fedia.io 20 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Makes sense. It's not a truck, car or SUV, it's a cosplay vehicle. Lego vehicles from the toy store will outlast this shitshow.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

“transparent metal” that breaks if it gets too hot, gets wiped with a microfiber cloth, or tapped by a wedding ring… 😂

I want to feel bad for cyber truck owners, but at the same time these problems are not new and not unknown. So if you know that something is known to have problems, and you still buy it, don’t be so shocked that it has problems for you too.

It was only a matter of time before insurance companies did something. I mean is it really that surprising that a company known for not wanting to pay out money if they can avoid it would want to not insure a rolling money pit?

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 19 points 1 month ago

Tesla Insurance ~~scam~~ Policy in 3..2..1..

load more comments
view more: next ›