Sacramento, CA – Assembly Bill 2800, authored by Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), was approved today on the Assembly Floor with bipartisan support.  The bill would allow auto-insurers to provide discounts to consumers for participating in voluntary mileage-based auto insurance programs in which the consumer would allow the insurer to verify their mileage. 

“California is on its way to becoming one of the first states in the nation to offer drivers environmentally friendly auto-insurance policies,” said Assemblymember Huffman. 

Under current law, drivers are only required to provide auto-insurers with estimates of their projected mileage.  This creates an inaccurate system that may or may not reward those who are truly driving less.  AB 2800 improves California’s auto-insurance market by rewarding those who verifiably drive less. 

A recent real-world study administered in Texas offered a reward to drivers who drove less.  It enrolled the 3,000 necessary participants within ten days of announcing the program and successfully lowered the drivers’ Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT).  If just 10% of California drivers enrolled in a program priced like this one, by 2020 we would avoid 46 billion miles driven and save 2 billion gallons of gas.  With voluntary programs, these VMT reductions are made by drivers who are willing to change their driving behavior.

AB 2800 now heads to the state Senate.