More than one in five young male drivers are now using so-called ‘black boxes’ in their cars to help lower their insurance premiums, new research claims.
And while 22 per cent of men aged 18-24 have taken up the option, only 14 per cent of women of the same age have.
As many as 323,000 drivers now have telematics policies, according to the Consumer Intelligence research; a rise of around 9 per cent in the last 18 months.
But insurers are being urged to offer new policies for different age groups so that the technology spreads more fully across the market.
Consumer Intelligence’s own research is claimed to show that 61 per cent of motorists would take out telematics if it cut their premium, 59 per cent would consider it if they were offered refunds for safe driving and 52 per cent would in return for refunds on lower mileage.
But the same data shows that two out of three drivers don’t believe telematics will ever become mainstream; 53 per cent say it will only ever be a niche market while nine per cent expect it to not grow and four per cent even believe it will become redundant as technology improves.
Ian Hughes, Chief Executive of Consumer Intelligence said: “There is still a long way to go for the motor insurance market before there is mainstream adoption of telematics.
“There is increasing acceptance of telematics and genuine benefits for drivers and insurers to use it in terms of safer driving and better pricing.
“However, insurers need to look at developing policies which address the needs of different age groups and reflect what they want and would value from telematics.”
