They claim that they use photos from satellites and fixed-wing aircraft, but refuse to show the photos to both the owner and the news outlet. I can almost 100% guarantee the company is lying about how they obtained the photos and won’t show them because it would prove they did use a drone. Admitting to using a drone would open up a can of legal issues for them that they want to avoid.
I think it is way more likely they just bought imagery from existing sources. There are tons of high res imagery out there that you can purchase. Price is usually determined by how old it is. This seems way more likely than an insurance company hiring a drone operator and going door to door. Secondly, companies never share the details of things like this. Wherever the source, they are unlikely to share it. Companies don’t give details because they don’t want to fight you. They just want to cancel your account and move on.
That isn’t to say this is right.
Do we want insurance companies peering into our backyards from imagery? I don’t. Regardless of if it’s a drone or not.
It’s more likely it was purchased/licensed imagery. I just think it’s weird and unfair that they won’t share the images that they used against the client. It’s similar to red light tickets. If people get one, they expect photo proof to come with it.
I get it, my sister got bugs in her home before from a hoarder neighbor and I’ve known somebody who had to move due to a fire caused by a different hoarder so I understand why they’d want/need to do this. But I feel like this falls under the inspection notification laws, at least my state has it where they need to inform you 24 hours before any inspection. So they should’ve sent out a notification 24 hours before flying the drone over and it would’ve been fine IMO. I’m not saying this guy was a hoarder either though, the insurance company wouldn’t release their photos so we can’t say if that’s actually the case one way or the other. But I’m fine with them using drones tbh.
Yeah but looking at what he showed it’s not like a hoarder situation, it’s a significant amount of stuff but it’s not like there’s literally a pile of tires and garbage back there, he’s just got some car accessories and a few sets of tires for his cars by his house and stuff like that. It’s a lot of stuff for the average person but nothing noteworthy generally pretty tame for a guy that’s into old cars. Maybe he cleaned it up some for the news, but if they aren’t showing their pictures it’s his word against theirs and I’m more inclined to give this guy the benefit of the doubt.
I played Where’s Waldo: Oakley Subdivision Edition seems pretty representative based on that. Also residents of Oakley seem to really like having cars and boats and shit in their side yards. if this guy is uninsurable then half the city is.
I agree. I wasn’t implying he deserved to have his plan dropped. Only commenting on the use of the drone tech for inspecting people’s properties. I should’ve clarified I was not defending the insurance company’s decision to cancel his plan.
That seems pretty reasonable.
But also, insurance companies have way too much power here. They serve a valuable need, but the company made 15 years of 100% pure profit by ducking out at the first inkling there was of risk. There needs to be a lot more regulation around insurers of all types to help protect consumers.
Absolutely agree, I don’t think they should be able to pull out like they did here. I could possibly see it if it was an extreme case of hoarding with an open flame and tons of flammable material or something like that, but there’s nothing to suggest that’s the case so the insurance company is in the wrong still. I was more referring to the use of the drone tech itself since this is the tech community.
If they think this is a hoarder, they ought to take a look at 2 of the homes near me lol. Both have been fined and forced to clean up by the city multiple times. One house was so bad they had junk like old cars, appliances, and old parts covering the sidewalk, let alone their own yard. I can see an insurance company dropping them, but this isn’t even close to bad.
The video is from the news station doing the story, he’s had plenty of time to stage the yard to make himself look better.
yea but if you’re assuming the guy might lie then it’s just a he-said-she-said between insurance companies that are known to employ awful shitty practices and just some dude and you’re taking the side of the corporations
That’s terrifying and needs regulation immediately.
Or insurance needs to be nationalized and not run for profit. Insurance started as a way for rich people to hedge against a total loss when investing in long distance trading ventures. Insurers then found a way to worm into every aspect of life including things like housing which is not a venture undertaken by choice.
Mutual insurance companies are not profit making companies.
Yes, any insurance company with “mutual” in the name is basically operated for the benefit of the insured parties. The owners are the policyholders, and any profit the insurance company makes gets paid out to the policyholders as dividends essentially partially offsetting the cost of their ongoing premiums.
Turns out, though, plenty of insurance companies run this way can still enrich their executives at the expense of policyholders and owners, so you still need to keep an eye out for self-interested individuals (or incompetence that costs everyone money), even if the company itself isn’t profit-driven.
