Navigating the New Insurance Landscape of Vehicle Mobility

21 October 2025 / 5 min read

As driving habits fragment and new vehicle types emerge, insurers must rethink one-size-fits-all cover. From ADAS to autonomous cars, the challenge is to adapt insurance products and partnerships for a mobility ecosystem that looks very different from the past.

Mobility is changing faster than most insurance operating models. Drivers still want the same simple outcome from their insurer when things go wrong—get me home, get me moving tomorrow. But the ways to deliver it are expanding, with alternative vehicle replacement options, a changing car culture, and new kinds of vehicles on the road.

Insurers are facing demand for total driving services solutions that integrate various products for a seamless experience. Many providers are looking to find their place in this new mobility stack, whether that means coordinating partners for an integrated solution, homing in on a singular niche, or developing new products for new driving preferences and listing what’s covered on a more granular basis to potential policyholders.

In a recent discussion at the Verisk Insurance Conference in London, experts explored how insurers are adapting their strategies as mobility evolves.

The many types of drivers

Research presented at the conference by Ian Hughes, CEO of Consumer Intelligence, shows just how fragmented driving attitudes are. A huge majority of 92%, use a car daily or a few times a week, underscoring a deeply ingrained car culture. Yet how people relate to driving differs markedly.

Around half of respondents described themselves as confident and preferring control over the vehicle, while one in five simply want to get from A to B. Smaller but significant groups said they were cautious but open to tech or appreciate tech that makes their lives easier. The findings map onto four customer types:

Traditionalist drivers enjoy the status quo: personal cars, familiar controls, a like‑for‑like replacement when something goes wrong.
Tech‑curious pragmatists are receptive to tech-enabled assistance when it clearly reduces hassle and cost.
Digital‑native explorers, often younger and urban, see driving as a task to outsource, preferring app‑based, on‑demand mobility.
Utilitarian minimalists treat vehicles as a means to an end, caring more about reliability than personal ownership.

Each of these groups is attuned to new solutions that suit their needs, from lighter-touch technology such as automatic braking, to car clubs, to the slow but steady emergence of autonomous vehicles. Insurance products and claims models that assume one type of journey, one policy, and one recovery route will need to adapt.

From one-size policies to diversified cover

Historically, most motor insurance has been sold through aggregators as a commoditised product—essentially the same cover at different prices. But as usage habits diverge, this may no longer suffice.

Risk profiles now vary dramatically even within a single model line. Two trims of the same car can differ sharply depending on sensor placement, repairability, and software capability. A modest electric vehicle (EV) with a charging port integrated into the front bumper may generate far higher repair bills than a premium model with better‑protected components.

In this context, insurers must know the car as well as the driver, going beyond standard price, brand, and badge proxies to collect component-level data and repairability insights.

Incentivising ADAS

Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) add to a vehicle’s complexity but are also an opportunity to reduce risk. These systems, which use sensors and cameras to alert drivers to potential hazards and sometimes correct behaviour, help prevent crashes and keep drivers safer on the road. That means insurers have a stake in encouraging adoption: safer driving translates into fewer claims.

Many drivers find ADAS intrusive, and their initial reaction is often to switch these systems off, limiting their use and effectiveness. However, Consumer Intelligence’s data finds 71% of drivers with ADAS would use these features more if an insurance discount were on offer. Incentives, then, are a tool for risk reduction, playing to the rhetoric of preventing claims as an increasing area of focus for insurers

The complication is that the quality of ADAS varies. The best systems are seamless and almost invisible until needed. Others create frustration and, if poorly protected, add thousands to repair bills when damaged. For insurers, the dual task is to encourage use where ADAS genuinely improves safety, and to price risk accurately by understanding repairability and sensor exposure vehicle by vehicle.

The rise of the self-driving car

Perhaps the most highly anticipated change to mobility is the autonomous vehicle, and they are finally edging into the mainstream.

UK drivers remain highly sceptical about this option, with most saying they would definitely or probably not use a self-driving car, as per the Consumer Intelligence research. Younger, tech‑savvy drivers, however, are far more open. Other markets show steady uptake: in the US, autonomous taxi service Waymo reports more than 250,000 paid rides per week.

As this technology emerges, insurers face a data gap, as the early autonomous cars that exist today are highly protective and generate almost no crash data. While insurable information is scant at present, it will build quickly. Many insurers are already taking steps to be ahead of the curve when adoption accelerates.

Insurance as a holistic solution

When things go wrong, customers don’t think in insurance stages—breakdown, recovery, replacement, repair. Their aim is simply to get to their home or destination and have a way to continue moving tomorrow. At the roadside, many customers may not even know which insurer they use; they simply want a single entity to sort them out.

Providers that integrate these steps—prediction, prevention, incident response, and onward mobility—are poised to win loyalty. When a customer books roadside assistance through an app (where applicable), has the vehicle recovered to a certified repairer, and is instantly offered a suitable replacement mobility option, insurance becomes not a set of transactions, but one connected service experience.

At the same time, consumers are increasingly likely to own or use multiple vehicle types: an EV for commuting, a van for occasional work, a scooter or bike for short trips. Many don’t want to juggle multiple policies; they want one integrated provider across all types of mobility.

That is why insurers are evolving toward more integrated propositions, building partnerships with mobility providers, vehicle manufacturers, and repair networks to deliver a joined-up service at a faster pace than ever before. Data is the connective tissue here, enabling insurers to personalise cover and price risk with accuracy. The winners will be those that can flex with consumer behaviour and position insurance as the backbone of tomorrow’s mobility ecosystem.