Random thoughts: Drones

A short one today – still working on the new study (see the sneak peeks here and here):

• It seems that quite a few insurers are now thinking of using drones for their business, judging by FAA approvals: State Farm, AIG, USAA and Erie, just to name a few that were in the news recently.
• What are the use cases? The most obvious is damage inspection (and Lynn Kesterson-Townes had a nice post on that a while back). But I can see just as good a use in underwriting. Imagine your commercial underwriter visiting a plant or warehouse, wearing with an augmented reality visor and bringing along 1-2 small camera-equipped drones. One walk- and fly-through, and you’ve got all the risk hotspots covered, plus you’d be able to identify lots of potential ones, especially if you have a Watson system in the background. Risk mitigation at its best; and you can even start offering it to home-owners etc. as a service. The best insurance is one that’s never needed, after all…
• The FAA estimates that more than 30,000 commercial drones will be in the sky in the next ten years. They need insurance, and not just for regular damage.
• And don’t forget the privately owned drones: does your homeowners’ insurance cover it?
• Want a great read about the scary side of drones? Check out Daniel Suarez’ “Kill decision”