The insurance product went live earlier this week in Virginia, Colorado, and Oregon.
During the call, Musk explained that having real-time feedback for driving habits results in Tesla owners driving their cars in a safer manner because they can see whether their habits are affecting their insurance rate or not.
Musk stated that when people see the feedback, they will be able to see a real-time score, allowing them to realize that if they make the following changes in their driving habits, they will pay less in insurance.
Kirkhorn also stated that by using real-time data, they are attempting to do a good thing for their customers, save people money, and make the roads a little safer.
During the call, Musk also explained that it's a feedback loop for Tesla because they see if there is a crash, no matter how big or small, and they get to see exactly what caused it, allowing them to think about how they can change the design of the car or software to reduce the likelihood of that accident.
"Most accidents are minor," Musk said, "but how do you make those accidents happen less frequently?" And how do we expedite the repair associated with that accident? Aspirationally, it would be same-day collision repair, which is a night and day difference from having to wait for a month while insurance claims are settled and figured out – because Tesla also does collision repair."
"We do claims management in-house," Kirkhorn added. As a result, when we receive notification of an accident, we immediately begin work on preparing an estimate. And, with the help of our customers, we can repair vehicles at our collision centers. As a result, there is complete end-to-end visibility."
He goes on to say that they can identify cost inefficiencies and feed them back to their engineering teams or elsewhere, as well as software teams, to actually improve the product.
"This lowers the cost of insurance and improves the product's reliability," Kirkhorn said. As a result, it's a full circle."
Musk claims that this makes the customer experience "vastly better," because there is no argument if an accident occurs.
"We'll fix it right away," Musk promised. "And this is in comparison to arguing with an insurance company, then a claims adjuster, and finally a collision repair center." And, in essence, this can be a nightmare. So, with Tesla Insurance, we're attempting to turn a nightmare into a dream."
During the call, Kirkhorn also stated that while reading social media posts after Tesla launched the offering, he noticed that many people were reporting stories of saving "quite substantial amounts of money" in comparison to their previous insurance.
Kirkhorn stated that they are encouraged by this, and that they are working hard to ensure that 80 percent of customers in the United States have access to a Tesla insurance product by the end of this year, at which point they will shift their focus to expansion outside of the United States.
Meanwhile, Moody's recently stated that it is influencing technology firms to undercut traditional insurers through Tesla's insurance business, which offers auto coverage by using real-time driving data to assess accident risk.
Furthermore, in August 2020, Tesla opened an insurance broker in Shanghai, China, expanding the company's reach to Asian customers.