- Home insurance companies are using drone footage to find reasons why they're losing customers.
- They have drones, manned planes, and surveillance balloons at their disposal.
- However, that image may be misleading or outdated, which could lead to an unfair policy cancellation.
Here's another reason to hate drones.
The Wall Street Journal reports that insurance companies across the country are now using drones to survey customers' homes from the air to find out why they are canceling their home insurance.
That's what happened to Cindy Picos. She told the Journal that she used a drone to take photos of the roof of her California home before her insurance company decided to take her down.
“I thought maybe they were in the wrong house,” Picos told the paper. “Our roof is in good condition.”
To prove that, she underwent an independent inspection and found the roof had an additional 10 years of lifespan, the newspaper reported. Still, her insurance company upheld her decision to cancel her plans, citing aerial photographs they refused to show her.
It may seem dystopian, but insurance companies have at their disposal drones, manned planes and high-altitude balloons to monitor the skies, covering almost all of the country, the magazine reported. .
However, the technology is imperfect. Companies have turned away customers due to outdated or false images. In one example cited by the magazine, a photo that initially appeared to show a fallen tree branch was actually just a shadow.
Despite problems, technology is developing rapidly. At this rate, properties could be monitored in high definition every day, the magazine reported.
