GEICO, the second-largest vehicle insurance underwriter in the US, has decided it will no longer cover Tesla Cybertrucks. The company is terminating current Cybertruck policies and says the truck “doesn’t meet our underwriting guidelines.”

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    24 days ago

    Makes sense. It’s not a truck, car or SUV, it’s a cosplay vehicle. Lego vehicles from the toy store will outlast this shitshow.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    I’m waiting for any kind of sourcing of this that’s more than “a guy on Twitter shared the text of his rejection letter.”

    This letter does not clarify if, as a matter of policy, all cybertruck insurance will be categorically rejected.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    GEICO claiming this isn’t true

    https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/7/24264330/geico-insurance-coverage-cybertruck-cancelled-dropped-policy

    "In an email to The Verge, Geico pushed back. “Geico has coverage available nationwide for the Tesla Cybertruck,” Geico spokesperson Ross Feinstein said. Feinstein did not immediately respond to follow-up questions about individual dropped policies. "

    So maybe it was something VERY specific to this persons use of the truck?

    • scarabic@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      Thank you.

      That part about how they insured his other vehicles so that PROVES this is a cyber truck-specific policy was so dumb. Insurance will deny for a million reasons or combinations of reasons.

    • r914@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      I heard he was renting it out on Turo. That is unconfirmed. I have no source.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        True or not to this specific situation, in general, that is definitely the kind of reason you might get dropped if you didn’t get the proper insurance.

        • r914@lemmy.world
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          23 days ago

          Yes. If this is true the owner should be happy they did this before trying to make a claim. Often people break the terms of the insurance and then when a claim is made they are denied all coverage.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    God, I hope other places follow. I work in insurance and not only is everything about the cybertruck an absolute fucking nightmare to source, let alone find a shop for, every single goddamn owner is like the most insufferable chod. That goes for women too. Tesla drivers could already be a problem, but the truck owners are like regular Tesla owners gone feral.

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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      24 days ago

      I hope other places follow

      Are they actually allowed to sell these pieces of shit elsewhere?

      Also is anyone else stupid enough to buy one?

      • smokebuddy [he/him]@lemmy.today
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        24 days ago

        they started taking orders from presales in Canada and they went through the entire list, I’m not sure if any have been delivered here yet though

      • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        People knowingly buy stupid vehicles. I’m one of them. It’s expensive to drive, big, has expensive insurance and only seats two but I love it.

        • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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          24 days ago

          I didn’t realise they only had two seats!

          Is that one for each of your brain cells? 😉

          • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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            24 days ago

            Someone with more than two brain cells could easily look that up and and realize they’re talking about a different vehicle before insulting a complete stranger for no reason.

            • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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              24 days ago

              I thought ‘expensive to drive’ would have given away it wasn’t a cybertruck, since the only good part about those things is that it’s an EV and probably doesn’t cost much to charge. I might not agree with your decision to drive a huge vehicle, but I’m not gonna call anyone an idiot for doing it.

              It’s also generally good form to not make spelling errors (realise) in a comment calling someone else stupid…

              • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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                24 days ago

                Please tell me the comment about the spelling mistake is some kind of weird humour (sic)

                • IGuessThisIsForNSFW@yiffit.net
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                  22 days ago

                  It is mostly tounge in cheek, but they did misspell realize in their comment and later edited it to correct it.

                  I mean if you’re gonna call someone else stupid, but you misspell it you’re kinda putting your foot in your own mouth no?

                • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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                  24 days ago

                  Sorry mate, your comment really makes it sound like you were starved of oxygen at birth and bought a Cybertruck.

                  As you were

            • turtletracks@lemmy.zip
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              24 days ago

              Why comment in the first place then? We’re talking about Cybertrucks and you start talking about your vehicle, people are gonna assume you mean the Cybertruck

              • ContrarianTrail@lemm.ee
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                24 days ago

                Also is anyone else stupid enough to buy one?

                Because I’m pointing out that people don’t only buy vehicles based on what’s wise or optimal. For some, it’s also a hobby and they have different preferences as what to drive. At the time of buying my current truck, a wagon would’ve been sufficient. I just went with what’s essentially my childhood-dream car instead. I’ve since developed an actual need for one too, but even now, a van would be a little more practical. Truck is simply more fun and nicer looking, while being the same size.

                • Mr_Blott@feddit.uk
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                  24 days ago

                  You can see why people misunderstood you though no?

                  I asked “is anyone else stupid enough to buy [a Cybertruck]”

                  You replied - [context as assumed by a normal person]

                  People knowingly buy stupid vehicles. I’m one of the m [people that bought this fuckin monstrosity]. [The Cybertruck is] expensive to drive, big, has expensive insurance and only seats two but I love it.

          • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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            23 days ago

            They likely didn’t know they were dangerous when they preordered and many are now stuck with them. I think they have a no resale contract for 2 years after buying.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              23 days ago

              I mean I don’t mean to sound ridiculous, but they even looked dangerous. I am not sure why anyone would assume they were safe. I didn’t even think they were street legal at first.

              That is a bummer to be stuck with one though, but you do have to be rich enough to buy one too.

            • Rekorse@sh.itjust.works
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              23 days ago

              Yeah I think they would be alright personal use offroad vehicles. Although they didnt build them for that, they could have.

      • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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        24 days ago

        Presumably, “other places” refers to other insurance companies. IOW, GEICO is (allegedly) denying them coverage. OP is hoping that Allstate, Progressive, etc will also deny coverage.

    • Baggins@feddit.uk
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      24 days ago

      chod

      Now there’s an insult I haven’t heard in a while.

      Take my upvote!

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Pretty sure they were one of the last major companies that would…

    Even if warranty pays for repairs to it, if it damages anything else the insurance still has to pay.

    The article mentions multiple examples of them just randomly shutting down during operation. That’s already bad. But this is going to be it’s first winter, it’s not surprising insurers don’t want to deal with it. They deal with large numbers, it’s not a question of “if” like an individual owner, its “when” for the insurer

      • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        Class action lawsuits are gonna be a mother fucker

        Part of the purchase agreement of a Tesla agreeing to binding arbitration. This means no class action suit. You can opt out of this within the first 30 days, but you have to send a letter requesting it.

        How many Tesla owners do you think do that?

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Wow, I never thought I’d find an actual good argument for keeping independent car dealers as middlemen instead of allowing first-party sales, but here we are.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            24 days ago

            Can you connect the dots for me? Third party dealers always have idemnity? clauses anyways.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              24 days ago

              Presumably anything you’d agree to while buying from an independent dealer would be between you and the dealer, not you and the manufacturer, right? I don’t understand how the manufacturer would be a party to the transaction.

              (It might be that I’m naive about how modern car sales work.)

              • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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                24 days ago

                I’m pretty clueless too, but to me your assertion doesn’t hold up to the concept of recalls.

                The true answer is probably that we’re both wrong and the answer is that as a consumer: you lose, fuck you. Also fuck your family dog.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Steam recently removed their arbitration clause, largely because paying for a thousand arbitration cases is worse than dealing with a class action.

          • locuester@lemmy.zip
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            24 days ago

            I’ve heard that death by 1,000 arbitrations is a good way to make em regret it. Glad to see it’s true.

          • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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            23 days ago

            Which is what Musk is looking at happening.

            Between cybertruck and twitter, dude’s gonna bankrupt himself.

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
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          24 days ago

          That assumes the court finds that enforceable. Usually they do, but a few times recently, they’ve said it’s not.

          • gramie@lemmy.ca
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            24 days ago

            That’s one of the nice things about the law in Quebec. Binding arbitration clauses are illegal.

              • gramie@lemmy.ca
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                24 days ago

                *Je does

                “doivent” is third-person plural (they, not I)

                Oh, and I didn’t notice that autocorrect changed my French to English. Should be"dois" or, as you say, “devrais” for the conditional.

          • Lets_Eat_Grandma@lemm.ee
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            24 days ago

            I mean in trumps court of law musk can’t lose.

            If dumpy wins, for sure no class action.

            If dumpy loses, his Supreme Court will still side with the conservative side anyway, so probably still no class action.

        • bluGill@fedia.io
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          24 days ago

          i don’t own a tesla, so if their cars injure me I can sue them*

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        24 days ago

        The go pedal and the steering wheel are equivalent to a keyboard/mouse and are not physically connected to anything. If the car shuts off, the wheels go where they feel like with absolutely no driver control.

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
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          24 days ago

          Never thought of they how would you brake if the car shutoff.

              • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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                23 days ago

                Definitely not as well but you can still use them. Cars didn’t even have vacuum assisted brakes up into the 1960s and 1970s

                • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
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                  21 days ago

                  Yes, and they were designed with that in mind- brake pedals with more leverage for one…

                  My mom had a Ford ranger for a while that had lost its brake boost, it took a lot of force to get it to slow down, and that wasn’t even a heavy vehicle, this was back when a pickup was a two-seater…

          • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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            23 days ago

            Have you looked at the cybertruck’s manufacturing practices? Airplanes have redundancies for their redunancies and that’s why people use them. The cybertruck was built with the “go fast and break things” model, does not have redundancies, and actually removed some standard safety features found in every other car. Like tempered glass.

            Comparing a cyber truck to an airplane is like comparing a pinewood derby car to a military personnel carrier. One was made by a child. The other is engineered to keep as many soldiers alive as possible.

          • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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            24 days ago

            Did you really just draw an equivalency between Tesla’s software practices and the aerospace industry? Even Daddy Musk isn’t stupid enough to pretend those are the same.

            Also your assertion that there is “no such thing as off” blatantly displays your horrible lack of understanding that distributed computing still relies on electricity.

            Edit: since Tesla is apparently the same thing as Airbus, can you point me to the source code published by the relevant regulatory body that controls the Cybertruck’s steering mechanism?

      • CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee
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        24 days ago

        A vehicle shutting down in the middle of the freeway can easily cause multiple accidents.

          • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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            24 days ago

            I don’t know how you got to the conclusion that OP was saying “all” and not being hypothetical.

              • lazynooblet@lazysoci.al
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                24 days ago

                According to this comment thread and the article, these cars have abruptly stopped functioning with no warning. Do you not think it is only a matter of time before that occurs in a dangerous situation? Insurance companies base their decisions on statistics and probabilities. It is very much related to “hypotheticals”.

              • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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                23 days ago

                It’s rare for normal cars to shut down with no warning.

                It’s pretty common for cybertrucks to do it.

                Eventually that’s gonna happen on a highway. Insurance works by assuming the worst thing that can happen will happen and charging you appropriately. It’s far from irrelevant in this case.

  • The Pantser@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Why are insurance companies the ones making the rational decision about saying it’s a dangerous piece of shit and not our transportation regulators? It needs to be banned.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      I don’t think insurance companies care of the trucks are dangerous per se. They care if they are expensive to repair, or prone to accidents which could attach liability to the policy holder and thereby the insurance company.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        24 days ago

        I keep telling conservatives this. It makes sense to have some form of suspicion around a message when some corporation has a profit motive behind it. For instance, climate change and companies selling solar panels (although I wish they wouldn’t put SO much effort into that faint connection).

        However, that also applies for the inverse - that when insurance drops coverage for Florida homes, it’s because climate change is real and they know it will hurt their bottom line.

        • piccolo@sh.itjust.works
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          24 days ago

          i never understood the suspicion about companies selling solar panels… they’re not snake oil, they work exactly as they are advertised. But, they allow people to be self reliant and not forced to rely on large enegry companies. It really shows where the allegiance for “conservatives” lie.

      • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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        24 days ago

        The weird thing about this claim is that these aren’t deal breakers. It’s possible to get insurance for exotics like McLaren or Bugatti (although no idea if GEICO does those); it just costs a lot.

        I’d really like to hear more about those underwriting standards.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          There probably aren’t that many people using a Bugatti as a daily driver. For Cybertruck I would think there are many people using it as a daily.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      24 days ago

      I don’t see anything in the article suggesting it’s particularly dangerous, only that it’s very expensive to fix, and in a collision will probably cause significant damage to the other vehicle (though that doesn’t mean it’ll necessarily cause injury).

      The US doesn’t exactly approve or deny vehicles in general; any vehicle that conforms to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards can be sold, as far as I know. And I don’t see any section that covers safety of the other party in a collision, unfortunately. Maybe write your reps and suggest they add one.

      • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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        24 days ago

        The US doesn’t exactly approve or deny vehicles in general; any vehicle that conforms to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards can be sold

        Sorry, I’m not getting the distinction here. Isn’t a vehicle that conforms to the FMVSS the same as one that is approved?

        Or is the check against FMVSS is not done ahead of time, but only later in any lawsuits?

        • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world
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          24 days ago

          Conforming = here’s a guide book. Follow it and we won’t bother you unless there’s an issue.

          Approval = please submit every model/trim you release to our inspection/test facility for approval.

          One requires a lot more people going back and forth between the manufacture and government than anyone wants.

    • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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      24 days ago

      Because insurance companies are filled with bean-counters (not intended as an insult, I’m a bean-counter in a different field) who want to come out ahead. That’s why the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) exists. You’d think organization that does crash tests and promotes new technology would be a government organization, but nope, it’s insurance providers that want to minimize payouts.

  • Konala Koala@lemmy.world
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    24 days ago

    Now that little gecko who works for GEICO will probably tell you “You can save a load of money by switching to GEICO, and its so easy a caveman can do it, but we refuse to insure that abomination you call a Tesla Cybertruck that needs to be road illegal everywhere”