Every driver taking out “black box” car insurance and breakdown cover from Britain’s RAC is being given access to the RAC’s new connected breakdown service.
The motorist club says telematics technology is “proving to be increasingly popular with hundreds of thousands of motorists already benefitting from cheaper car insurance by having their driving reviewed to prove they are safe at the wheel”.
The connected breakdown service remotely transmits information from vehicles’ on-board diagnostics systems to the RAC, which it says allows important faults to be identified and fixed at the earliest possible opportunity.
“Every time the vehicle’s engine is started a full diagnostics scan is carried out covering more than 15,000 checks,” it says in a statement. “Even though fault codes may be generated, these don’t always appear on the dashboard meaning the driver is not aware there is an issue with the vehicle. In fact, the code may remain in the background until the vehicle is next serviced, or the fault gets worse, possibly causing the vehicle to break down.
“However, with RAC Black Box Insurance when a vehicle produces a fault code the box sends it to the RAC where it is assessed using the RAC’s unique insight, gained from years of analysing millions of breakdown fault codes read at the roadside, and assigned a fault severity.”
The RAC says the policyholder can access any fault codes in their app or via the online portal straightaway and will receive a weekly email notifying them if there is an issue and when a serious fault is identified which could have safety implications or lead to a more complex failure, the customer will be automatically contacted by an RAC agent to inform them what action needs to be taken.
