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Hey. I built Cuvva. Exciting to see it posted on HN, causing a lot of traffic to our site! Cuvva is currently UK-only. Here if you drive a friend's car, you're

Hey. I built Cuvva. Exciting to see it posted on HN, causing a lot of traffic to our site! Cuvva is currently UK-only. Here if you drive a friend's car, you're normally only covered for damage to third parties. With Cuvva, it's a full comprehensive policy. This is not typically relevant for the US. However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US.

phpnode 11y ago
Hey, this looks really fantastic, it solves a real problem for UK drivers and I think you'll be fantastically successful. However, I couldn't find any information about who's behind the site, and I wonder about the mechanism through which the insurance is provided, how is it backed?
- BillinghamJ 11y ago
  We are authorized & regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as an intermediary. We have built a partnership with a European underwriter to sell policies on their behalf. To make Cuvva possible, we've had to build every part of the system from scratch. This is mostly in Node JS, with some RoR thrown in. We also have some open source code on our Github - https://github.com/cuvva https://github.com/cuvva
scott00 11y ago
I think coverage by the mile or the hour for primary drivers would be of interest to a lot of car owners in US urban areas. An existing player, Metro Mile, markets their product as pay-per-mile, but the majority of the cost actually comes from a fixed per-month fee. Of course that might be because what I want makes no actuarial sense...
- bri3d 11y ago
  Most US states require that a car be continuously insured as a condition of its registration, so I think a fixed per-month fee is inevitable. Each US state also regulates insurance completely differently, so trying to break into "the US market" with an insurance company is really trying to break into 50 different legal areas. Very similar to the other article on the HN frontpage today about US "FinTech" / money transmittal companies.
  - richmarr 11y ago
    > ...require that a car be continuously insured... This doesn't seem like an issue, maybe I'm missing something. You just model it as continuous insurance based off mileage rather than insurance that's only active when driving. Metromile et al are conventional insurers except that they use actual rather than estimated mileage in their pricing. I think the real reason that there's a monthly fee is that actuarial risk isn't linear with mileage.
- avn2109 11y ago
  Everything makes actuarial sense if they charge you enough...
rahimnathwani 11y ago
"Here if you drive a friend's car, you're normally only covered for damage to third parties." Even that assumes you have an insurance policy for your own car. If you don't, and you are not listed as a driver on your friend's policy, you would have no third party insurance coverage and therefore would be driving illegally.
latimer 11y ago
Interesting idea. Do you think you'll have any issues with people trying to wait until they get into an accident to sign up for a Cuvva policy then filing a claim as if the accident happened after the policy went into effect?
- BillinghamJ 11y ago
  Before you buy the policy, you snap a quick photo of the vehicle. This helps prevent fraudulent claims.
avn2109 11y ago
>> "However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US." I'm pretty sure there is a small but enthusiastic market in the US for sharing expensive sports cars, either through formal timesharing arrangements or by going in with a few friends. Formal timesharing clubs exist but the insurance is badly organized and stupidly expensive. It would be great if I could go in on a Ferrari with 9 of my buddies and only pay for insurance when I'm driving it every tenth day.
chaostheory 11y ago
Not sure if this makes sense in the US, but I actually wanted something like this when I was selling a car that we no longer used. As a substitute we had to buy a full day of insurance from our primary carrier when we were showing the car and letting potential buyers test drive it (we always met a good distance from our home). I know the rate varies per car and driver but for us it cost about $28 per day and it didn't feel convenient to get (website or calling customer service).
GFischer 11y ago
Congratulations! Awesome product, and I like your landing page and blurb a lot. And I love the FAQs :) https://support.cuvva.co/hc/en-gb/articles/202311812-Can-I-use-Cuvva-to-get-my-horrible-ungrateful-children-off-my-policy- https://support.cuvva.co/hc/en-gb/articles/202311812-Can-I-u...

phpnode 11y ago

Hey, this looks really fantastic, it solves a real problem for UK drivers and I think you'll be fantastically successful. However, I couldn't find any information about who's behind the site, and I wonder about the mechanism through which the insurance is provided, how is it backed?

BillinghamJ 11y ago
We are authorized & regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as an intermediary. We have built a partnership with a European underwriter to sell policies on their behalf. To make Cuvva possible, we've had to build every part of the system from scratch. This is mostly in Node JS, with some RoR thrown in. We also have some open source code on our Github - https://github.com/cuvva https://github.com/cuvva

scott00 11y ago

I think coverage by the mile or the hour for primary drivers would be of interest to a lot of car owners in US urban areas. An existing player, Metro Mile, markets their product as pay-per-mile, but the majority of the cost actually comes from a fixed per-month fee. Of course that might be because what I want makes no actuarial sense...

bri3d 11y ago
Most US states require that a car be continuously insured as a condition of its registration, so I think a fixed per-month fee is inevitable. Each US state also regulates insurance completely differently, so trying to break into "the US market" with an insurance company is really trying to break into 50 different legal areas. Very similar to the other article on the HN frontpage today about US "FinTech" / money transmittal companies.
- richmarr 11y ago
  > ...require that a car be continuously insured... This doesn't seem like an issue, maybe I'm missing something. You just model it as continuous insurance based off mileage rather than insurance that's only active when driving. Metromile et al are conventional insurers except that they use actual rather than estimated mileage in their pricing. I think the real reason that there's a monthly fee is that actuarial risk isn't linear with mileage.
avn2109 11y ago
Everything makes actuarial sense if they charge you enough...

rahimnathwani 11y ago

"Here if you drive a friend's car, you're normally only covered for damage to third parties." Even that assumes you have an insurance policy for your own car. If you don't, and you are not listed as a driver on your friend's policy, you would have no third party insurance coverage and therefore would be driving illegally.

latimer 11y ago

Interesting idea. Do you think you'll have any issues with people trying to wait until they get into an accident to sign up for a Cuvva policy then filing a claim as if the accident happened after the policy went into effect?

BillinghamJ 11y ago
Before you buy the policy, you snap a quick photo of the vehicle. This helps prevent fraudulent claims.

avn2109 11y ago

>> "However we are interested in the potential for other products which might work in the US." I'm pretty sure there is a small but enthusiastic market in the US for sharing expensive sports cars, either through formal timesharing arrangements or by going in with a few friends. Formal timesharing clubs exist but the insurance is badly organized and stupidly expensive. It would be great if I could go in on a Ferrari with 9 of my buddies and only pay for insurance when I'm driving it every tenth day.

chaostheory 11y ago

Not sure if this makes sense in the US, but I actually wanted something like this when I was selling a car that we no longer used. As a substitute we had to buy a full day of insurance from our primary carrier when we were showing the car and letting potential buyers test drive it (we always met a good distance from our home). I know the rate varies per car and driver but for us it cost about $28 per day and it didn't feel convenient to get (website or calling customer service).

GFischer 11y ago

Congratulations! Awesome product, and I like your landing page and blurb a lot. And I love the FAQs :) https://support.cuvva.co/hc/en-gb/articles/202311812-Can-I-use-Cuvva-to-get-my-horrible-ungrateful-children-off-my-policy- https://support.cuvva.co/hc/en-gb/articles/202311812-Can-I-u...