LexisNexis Study: ADAS Cuts Auto Insurance Loss Costs by Up to 23%—But Repair Complexity Is Rising

LexisNexis Risk Solutions released a major quantitative study of ADAS features and insurance loss costs in November 2021. The white paper analyzed 11 million model-year 2014 to 2019 vehicles and covered 648 possible combinations of eleven core ADAS features. The findings showed that ADAS systems dramatically reduce crash frequency, while the repair-cost offset may be smaller than critics feared.

John Kanet, director of auto insurance for LexisNexis, described a distinct ADAS loss-cost benefit. Vehicles equipped with any ADAS feature experienced a 23-percent reduction in bodily injury loss cost, a 14-percent reduction in property damage loss cost, and an 8-percent reduction in collision claims cost compared with vehicles with no ADAS features. LexisNexis senior data scientist Gabe Hinton said the decrease in claim severity for liability coverages may reflect that ADAS-equipped vehicles collide with less force, reducing damage to other vehicles and injury to third parties.

The study found that ADAS generally led to minor reductions in claim severity but greatly reduced claim frequency. The degree of loss-cost reduction varied depending on the specific combination of features present, with most combinations producing 0-to-5-percent reductions but some combinations achieving substantially larger decreases. The data was drawn from LexisNexis's Vehicle Build product, which can identify the specific ADAS configuration of individual vehicles—an approach that allows more granular analysis than fleet-level aggregate studies.

For the auto glass sector, the LexisNexis findings carry a complex implication. The study supports the case that investment in safety technology produces fewer crashes and lower insurance costs at the population level. Repair costs per incident have not dropped proportionally, however: ADAS-equipped vehicles are more expensive to repair than non-ADAS vehicles, particularly because glass replacement on ADAS vehicles typically requires camera recalibration.

Kanet suggested that insurers could use the ADAS data in their rating segmentation, potentially offering lower premiums to owners of well-equipped vehicles. If carriers act on this suggestion, it could put pressure on shops to document ADAS calibration thoroughly—because an improperly calibrated vehicle that later crashes will be scrutinized for whether the safety systems were functioning correctly when the incident occurred.

The LexisNexis study provided the most rigorous quantification to date of the ADAS safety benefit, and it set a new benchmark for industry conversations about how ADAS-related glass and sensor repair costs should be assessed. Shops that frame their calibration services as contributing to the documented safety benefit—rather than as add-on charges—are positioned to have more productive conversations with insurance partners about fair reimbursement.