Safety Technologies Are Skyrocketing Insurance Rates

2013 Volvo V40 rear cross-traffic system (Credit: Volvo)

Want a car with all the latest safety innovations? It’ll cost you, not only with a bigger price tag, but also higher insurance rates.

That might not make sense, because a lot of the new safety techs are designed to prevent accidents. Isn’t that something insurance companies would reward you for?

The thing is all those fancy sensors for your lane departure warning, forward collision mitigation and rear cross-traffic monitoring isn’t exactly expsnsive. And it doesn’t guarantee you won’t get in a wreck. Even if you drive carefully, someone else could crash into your vehicle. Replacing taillights, bumpers and other parts with those sensors can be expensive.

A report from the Chicago Tribune profiled how three major insurance carriers upped rates for Illinois residents by 5.9 percent this year. That’s huge, and new safety tech is being named as one of the reasons for the increase.

Even a minor fender bender could prove to be a costly mistake. This is what they mean by the bleeding edge of technology.

Still, it’s never a bad idea to get a vehicle that’s safe. Solid crash ratings not only could save you from death or serious injury, it can still help lower insurance costs. Or offset the higher rates those cool sensors trigger. Hospital bills are pretty expensive, too, in case you didn’t hear.