Australian insurer offers cheaper premiums to motorists who don’t drive themselves
Users of Tesla’s Full-Self Driving (Supervised) semi-autonomous driving tech can access lower insurance premiums through Zurich.
Tesla rolled out its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software in Australia a year ago, marking the first time that local motorists have been able to drive their vehicles without human input.
With FSD Supervised active, the ‘Level 2’ semi-autonomous driving system steers, accelerates and brakes the car all on its own, though the driver is still deemed as the one in control – not the car itself – providing a legal loophole which puts the onus on the human in the driver’s seat.
Available as a subscription service for $149 per month (or an upfront fee of $10,100 for those who purchased it prior to March 31, 2026), FSD Supervised isn’t cheap, though the cost of ownership for Tesla customers has been potentially reduced, thanks to a new approach by insurance giant Zurich.
From this week, the Australian outpost of Zurich is including the use of FSD Supervised as “a rating factor for its Tesla insurance offering”, leading to less expensive premiums for users.
Available through Zurich’s InsureMyTesla product – the only insurance endorsed by Tesla – the updated offering “covers eligible Australian customers with FSD (Supervised) technology in their vehicle”, said to be only the second time an insurance provider has recognised the system as a risk factor globally.
“This is a really exciting milestone – both for Tesla owners who are rapidly adopting this FSD (Supervised) technology, and for Zurich as the first insurer in Australia to actively lean into this space,” said Zurich product manager, David Toma.
“The data shows that drivers using this technology are involved in far fewer accidents, so it’s important they can access insurance that reflects this lower risk.”
According to global data published by Tesla, “vehicles using this technology [FSD Supervised] have seven times fewer major or minor collisions compared with regular EVs”.
Jordan Mulach
Initially available in the US as a beta service to a select group of 160,000 users who gathered real-time data for Tesla, the technology became publicly available in late November 2022 to all vehicles capable of running it.
At the time, it was not approved by US road safety regulators to be used unsupervised.
Tesla continues to offer its free, pre-installed Autopilot system in Australia, providing common features such as adaptive cruise control and lane-change assistance.
Stephen Ottley
