Organization Root Tag

In other news: Liberty Mutual launches insurance agency; Neptune Flood releases carbon-neutral plan; New York Life announces CEO-elect.

Electric vehicles fare poorly in the latest reliability study from Consumer Reports, with Tesla Inc. and its battery-powered lineup finishing second to last for the second-straight year. Only Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln division was worse, the organization said Thursday at the Automotive Press Association in Detroit.

Apple Inc. venturing into cars might shake up the electric vehicles market in the same way the iPhone revolutionized the mobile communications industry in 2007. So says Morgan Stanley.

Willis Towers Watson Plc is adding four new members to its board after activist investors pushed for changes at the insurance brokerage following the collapse of a $30 billion planned sale to Aon Plc.

UPS, which tested autonomous delivery vans with Waymo in the Phoenix area beginning last year, will expand that partnership to include big rigs, Waymo said in a statement. The courier first began testing autonomous technology on 18 wheelers with TuSimple in Arizona after taking an equity stake in the startup in 2019. The Waymo tests will be done for UPS’s North American Air Freight unit for delivery routes between Dallas and Houston.

American International Group Inc. and other insurers avoided steep losses from a spate of extreme weather this year thanks in part to the reinsurance industry. But increased reliance on those policies probably means price hikes are coming.

Cryptocurrencies have faced a bumpy road to gaining acceptance from the U.S. financial system.

Amazon says it isn’t legally culpable because the driver worked for Harper Logistics LLC, one of thousands of small businesses launched in recent years specifically to deliver Amazon packages. By focusing on the key role played by the algorithms, Rana’s attorney, Scott Harrison, is looking to prove that the company controls the operation, managing everything from how many packages drivers must deliver to whether they should be kept on or fired.

Before the year is over, Elon Musk wants to start production at Tesla’s new electric-vehicle factory outside Berlin. While he’s cautioned that ramping up Model Y output at the facility in the small town of Gruenheide will be challenging, the development is the talk of the German auto industry nonetheless.

Arity, a mobility data and analytics company founded by Allstate in 2016, has made its nearly 100 million driving risk scores exclusively available on Transparent.ly, a platform for auto insurance marketers to leverage leads and target shoppers.

The move suggests Apple is plowing ahead with attempts to develop self-driving technology, a high-stakes race with automakers such as Tesla. Moore is joining a division known for its secrecy -- Apple has never publicly laid out its car plans -- and frequent turnover. The head of Apple’s car project, codenamed Titan, departed the company earlier this year to lead technology efforts at Ford Motor Co.

Suddenly the metaverse is everywhere. Ok, the concept of the metaverse is everywhere – thanks to Mark Zuckerberg’s October 28 announcement that “Facebook” has become “Meta.”

Nationwide’s Sarah Jacobs, vice president of personal lines product development, spoke with Digital Insurance about a recent survey on smart home devices and the future of IoT at Nationwide.

After leaving Aon in 2008, he started Ryan Specialty Group Holdings Inc. and has pursued acquisitions to build the firm into one of the largest of its kind. Chicago-based Ryan Specialty -- with 3,300 employees and a market value of almost $10 billion -- offers products and services to insurance brokers and agents to help protect against risks, including cybercrime and climate-related hazards.

In other news: Zurich releases cyber risk survey results; Hertz and Uber to add 50,000 Teslas to network; Amica selects Shift Technology.

The agency has been working with the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to coordinate policies for how and under what circumstances banks can engage in activities involving crypto assets, FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams said at a conference Monday.

Taken together, the deals represent a trifecta of aggressive and innovative initiatives with the potential to upend the car-rental business and hasten the transition to greener transportation. The car order on Monday, the largest-ever for EVs at $4.2 billion, was such as watershed moment that it propelled Tesla Inc.’s valuation past $1 trillion.

Keynova Group, a financial services intelligence firm specializing in benchmark insights, released its 2021 Small Commercial Insurance Scorecard report, which evaluates the small commercial insurance digital capabilities of the 10 largest U.S. carriers.

Tesla jumped as much as 6.7% to a record high of $970.84 in New York, before paring gains to 4.4%, with the company’s market valuation around $955 billion.

The change is effective Jan. 1, when Lyons will move to the newly created role of executive vice president, global chief actuary and head of portfolio management, the New York-based insurer said in a statement Monday.