Allstate considers discounts
for brainy drivers

Allstate would really like its customers to increase their mental sharpness. To that end, the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer is thinking about offering discounts on car insurance to those who pledge to "exercise their brain."

The insurance company invited roughly 100,000 customers, age 50 and older, to participate in a pilot study that asks them to exercise their brain with a series of game-like activities on their home computers. Results from the trial, launched in Pennsylvania in September 2008, will be available after March 2009.

"After we receive the results and evaluate, then we will make plans to see if we want to roll it out nationally," says Krissy Posey, spokesperson for Allstate. "But we won't have a clear decision on that until sometime next year."

Allstate partnered with Posit Science Corp., a developer of cognitive-training programs, in this endeavor because studies show that improving your cognitive ability could make you a safer driver. And safer drivers mean fewer insurance claims payments. The insurance company has yet to determine how much of a discount participants would receive, if they would be charged for the software and whether the program would be offered solely to a specific age group. But here's how it would work. After signing up, you would receive the brain-fitness software program, called InSight, in the mail. Once installed on your home PC, you'd be asked to complete around 10 hours of game-like brain exercises. The software would track how many hours you spend exercising your brain, Posey says.

"We want our customers to not only think of us a company that protects their possessions. We want to move beyond that," Posey says. "We not only want to provide an auto discount but to increase their overall quality of life."

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were 30 million licensed drivers age 65 and older in 2006, an 18 percent increase from 1996. The number of mature drivers will only continue to rise as the baby boomer generation becomes seniors.

"We don't have any hard numbers, but our research has shown that for those in their mid 60s or those approaching their 70s, their accident frequency is on the increase," Posey says. "We want to be able to help customers retain their cognitive ability."

According to Allstate, the technology has been shown to reduce dangerous driving maneuvers by up to 40 percent and improve stopping distance by an average of 22 feet when traveling at 55 miles per hour. Scientific studies have demonstrated that exercising your brain can reduce crash risk by up to 50 percent, according to Allstate.

InSight is designed to reverse age-related cognitive decline and greatly improve a driver's visual alertness. If using the software is successful in reducing accident rates among customers 50 years and older, Allstate hopes to begin offering discounts to drivers who use the computer-based exercises to help improve their mental sharpness.