Google Auto Insurance. Again.

Just came across yet another article speculating a strong play from Google, or should I say “Alphabet,” coming to an Auto Insurance market near you. Acquisitions of an online quoting technology, investment in a health insurance company that uses wearable technology and the move further into our physical world with Nest thermostats and smoke detectors – all plugged into their enormous stores of user data. Before they power all our autonomous driving vehicles they may first want to insure all our regular cars first.

Before the car and how we use it radically changes, which is coming faster then we think, the competition for auto insurance is just going to continue to get fiercer. Is it really the golden goose of insurance or a red herring – a distraction that will eventually whip out half the industry as we know it today?

Here’s an experiment, close your eyes; imagine a world without auto insurance – what does it look like? Who are the major markets? Are there brokers – what do they do sell? What’s the most profitable product?

Open your eyes; what did you see?