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Ken, a Cybertruck owner from Kansas, has shared his suspicion that State Farm Insurance is penalizing him for driving a Tesla.
Ken is taking part in State Farm’s “Drive Safe & Save” initiative. Those who join this program install a tracking device from State Farm in their cars. This device evaluates driving behavior and, depending on their habits, enables participants to earn discounts on their insurance premiums.
Ken has enrolled all five of his vehicles in this program, including his Cybertruck, Tesla Model 3, and three additional internal combustion vehicles.
Since installing State Farm devices in his cars, Ken reports substantial insurance discounts for all his gas vehicles.
Nonetheless, the premium discount on his Cybertruck and Tesla Model 3 has essentially stayed the same.
Now, Ken is convinced that State Farm is somehow penalizing him for driving a Tesla.
The frustrated Cybertruck owner shared his story on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum.
He writes…
“Is State Farm Insurance punishing Tesla Owners?
I have a question for anyone using the State Farm Drive Safe and Save pucks in their Tesla. I have these pucks in my Model 3, my Cybertruck, both of my kids’ cars, and my weekend fun toy car (the last three being gas vehicles).
As I understand it, the program is supposed to give you a discount based on your driving—how much you drive, how you drive, etc. Provided that you drive well, you get a discount on your premium.
The discounts for my kids’ cars and my weekend fun toy gas car are all significant, maybe as much as 20% off the premium. However, the discount for both of my Teslas is minimal—perhaps $5 or $10.
I let my daughter borrow the Model 3, yet the discount didn’t change, even though she was the driver versus her normal car, which is a Mazda CX5 (gas).
I drive my weekend fun toy (gas) car, and the discount is still much higher, even though I’m driving the same way as I would drive my Teslas—probably driving faster, given that it is a sports car that makes loud noises.
So the discount isn’t based on who the driver is or their driving style, since my daughter has no impact on the Tesla’s score, and I have radically different results between driving a gas car and driving a Tesla.
Is there something in State Farm’s formula that penalizes Tesla owners regarding the discount they receive in the program? For example, I noticed my braking scores in the app are often a “C” grade on my Teslas, yet I hardly ever use the brakes. I either let FSD or the regen do it, so there are no sudden slams on the brakes. Meanwhile, with my weekend fun toy, I hammer on those brakes all day long when I drive it, yet it gets a better braking score. What gives?
I am curious if other owners out there using this State Farm Drive Safe and Save have ever been able to achieve any significant discount with a Tesla in the program. If not, then I should probably be raising this issue with State Farm.”
This situation is certainly intriguing, and even more surprisingly, several other Tesla owners insured by State Farm have reported receiving penalties for driving a Tesla.
A fellow Tesla owner, Stephen from New York, writes…
“I have the State Farm Safe & Save beacon in my daughter’s vehicle. She’s driving a Tesla Model 3; the biggest hit she gets is hard braking.
The problem is she doesn’t use the brake pedal; it’s all regen braking. She has had it for more than 6 months now, and so far, the discount is only about $15, which is nothing like what they said it could be based on her safe driving record.
I have all parental controls activated as well as chill mode, but she’s not receiving any discounts like the advertised 20-50%.
They provided additional beacons for the other cars (Model S, Model X, Cybertruck), which I have declined.
Until I see actual savings from the Model 3, I’m not going to include them in any other car I own.”
Another Cybertruck owner from Idaho also shares a similar feeling that State Farm is penalizing him for driving a Tesla.
The Cybertruck owner says he often gets dinged when driving with Tesla’s full self-driving software. However, citing Tesla’s autopilot safety report, the Cybertruck owner argues that he should receive a discount for using FSD rather than driving manually.
He writes…
“What a coincidence! This is exactly the topic I intended to discuss today. We have State Farm’s Safe and Save program active in our Cybertruck AWD, which we previously used in our Toyota Prius Prime before trading it for the Cybertruck. The program worked exceptionally well with the Toyota. All we needed to do was drive cautiously – brake gently, accelerate smoothly, avoid sharp turns, and stay within the speed limit (or up to 10% over). We also had to avoid touching our phone screens, or we would get penalized. However, the discount made it worthwhile.
Fast forward to the Cybertruck we got last November. I drive almost entirely using FSD, while my wife prefers to drive herself most of the time. Our State Farm driving score is perfect for phone distraction, cornering, and speed. Braking is a bit lower, around 90 (still qualifying for the discount), but ACCELERATION is around 60! That’s a big hit!
Looking at the detailed drives, I can see that the violations occur almost entirely on my trips (under FSD). We have a series of stop signs on the straightaway from our house to town. Our Cybertruck stops smoothly at each stop but tends to accelerate HARD up to the 25 mph speed limit afterward.
This pattern occurs at each stop sign on my route to town. The acceleration following a stop sign makes up the vast majority of the acceleration events recorded in our State Farm driving profile. After stopping at a traffic light, I often find myself behind slowly accelerating vehicles, which keeps my Cybertruck from speeding off. However, these stops on our little road have no traffic. I stop… and then POW, we’re off!
I am driving in Standard or Chill mode — it makes no difference in the acceleration.
After reading that a Tesla under FSD is roughly 10 times safer (even in supervised mode) than the average driver, I would expect some way to detect that a computer is driving, and that finding should give me a discount! However, the insurance companies are not in sync with Tesla, at least.”
Overall, looking at the comments, many more Tesla drivers have noted that insurance companies are unfairly penalizing them for unsafe driving.
Please let me know what you think in the comments. Share your ideas by clicking the RED “Add new comment” button below. Also, be sure to visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.
For more information, check out: A Tesla Cybertruck Owner Says He Felt Something Was Broken When He Went Back to His Ford F-250 After a Few Months Exclusively Driving His Cybertruck – Adds “It Felt Archaic & Clunky”
Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.
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Source: torquenews.com
