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Smart app secures photos of claims

Damage and coverage. Metakol has devised a system whereby, after a car accident, unalterable images can be taken for insurance companies

29 July 2024

3' min read

Artificial intelligence can provide support to those involved in a car accident, with regard to the damage suffered or caused and insurance cover. This is demonstrated by an app created and patented by the Genoese hi-tech company Metakol. The new technology allows motorists to report an accident directly from their smartphone. The system works thanks to a Qr code, which must be kept on board at all times, issued by the insurance company or an intermediary. By framing the code with your mobile phone, you access a web app that allows you to take photographs of the damage to your car in a way that all images captured are unalterable and are stored in their original format. With the web app you can also take pictures of the Cai form for the friendly statement and fill in a short data set of information, necessary for reporting the claim.

The data collected in this way, and rendered unalterable by artificial intelligence, are then forwarded, in real time, to the insurance company liable for the damage, which can then arrange for an immediate expert appraisal of the damage, which can also be done remotely.

In short, the simplest claims, where there is no discussion of liability, can be settled even within hours of the event.

The founder

This was clarified by Andrea Mungo, founder and CEO of Metakol, who brought to the table his long experience in insurtech, in the field of black boxes (the entrepreneur was also CEO of Octo Telematics, specialising in that field) and Vedr (Video event data record) dashcams, which he himself patented. 'I invented,' he explains, 'the system with an on-board camera that, when a sudden braking is recorded, records the 15 seconds before and 15 seconds after the event'.

Andrea Mungo. Fondatore e ceo di Metakol

Leaving Octo Telematics in 2018, Mungo founded Metakol, a company that created an apparatus, he explains, 'that analyses, with Ai, all types of documentation and is able to establish whether the material in question, including photos, has been manipulated. Artificial intelligence, in fact, is able to read the metadata of documents and, even if these are not there, we have trained the Ai to understand if there is fraud. The goal is the validation and certification of digital documents'.

Based on this experience, he continues, 'we created Vapp, the web app dedicated to motor claims. When you write a letter, you send a message, but if you send an email by e-mail, you get the same result much faster. Vapp works according to the same principle, with the advantage, however, that since the contents transmitted are verified and certified, it becomes similar to a Pec. Vapp, therefore, satisfies the need to know exactly what to do the moment after a claim has been made. A service that can be useful, in particular, to those who find themselves managing, for example, company fleets, with a high number of vehicles on the road'.

It is no coincidence that the initiative, as well as winning the approval of the consumer association Konsumer Italia, has aroused the interest of Federtrasporti, which will make (?) the system available to the truck drivers of its member companies. The intention is to speed up procedures and help drivers to collect, in just a few minutes, what they need to report an accident quickly and easily. The documentation collected, moreover, can be used for analysis and statistics.

Innovative system

'Most of the systems currently in use for motor claims,' says Mungo, 'are not equipped with artificial intelligence: they just record. Whereas the fact that Vapp uses Ai, makes it capable of resolving some important issues'. One above all: it ensures that the photos taken at the scene of the accident are authentic and unchangeable. "This is another reason why it has been approved by the Konsumer association,' Mungo emphasises.

The company

Metakol, at the moment, consists of 12 people and Guido Carbone - a long experience in the maritime sector with the Finsea group - has just joined the team to take care of the commercial and sales side. It is precisely Carbone who emphasises how Vapp is also useful in local public transport insurance. "Among the first customers we are dealing with," he says, "we have a transport company in a city, which is experimenting with our tool. It had a very high claims/premiums paid ratio: out of 100 claims, 126 premiums. Thanks to our application with Ai, we have brought this ratio down to 100/82'.

Metakol currently invoices about one million a year, 'before selling we wanted,' says Mungo, 'the support to be perfect. Now it is, and we expect to reach a turnover of 15 million in two or three years'.

Raoul de Forcaderedattore
Luogo: Genova
Lingue parlate: italiano, inglese
Argomenti: shipping, nautica, economia, finanza.
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