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Not really. It's true that insurance companies charge more to certain people because they are statistically more likely to, for example, be in a car accident th
by timoth3y 9y ago
Not really. It's true that insurance companies charge more to certain people because they are statistically more likely to, for example, be in a car accident than another person or because a home in a particular location is more at risk to wildfires.
But that's where the similarities end.
Insurance companies have a much more and higher quality data than these companies do. More important, the ways the insurance companies price their product is public and subject to competition. If an insurance company realizes that a specific segment of the market is less risky than previously thought they can make a lot of money by dropping the price and underwriting policies for that group.
These courtroom applications use secret algorithms, and frankly, have little incentive to improve them.
- sideshowb 9y agoGood point. I think competition is the crux of the matter here. Alas I don't think the shop-around model would work for sentencing.