What a time to be alive. Life expectancy is at an all-time high. Living outside of planet earth may soon be an actual possibility. We could even use genetic editing to bring back extinct species. T-rex? Anybody? No?

It seems like a pretty progressive time to live in, right? Why, then, is there so much stuff that still doesn’t quite add up?

For example, why do you only ever use about 10% of the buttons on your TV remote? Why do aeroplane safety videos give instructions for water landings on a flight between Joburg and Bloem? And why do you pay for accident cover if you’re not driving your car and it’s just standing in a garage?

We don’t have all the answers. Like you, we simply can’t imagine the purpose of inflatable vests high above a Free State mielie farm. But we can take on the field we know best — insurance, which, we’d be the first to admit, is riddled with mystery too.

It’s not Schrödinger’s Car

Let’s take the car-parked-in-your-garage example. This is not a Schrödinger’s Cat type of situation. You, like your insurer, can safely assume that your car is still very much intact while you’re on an overseas trip, even if nobody sees it and the garage door remains closed. So it would make sense that you shouldn’t have to pay for road accident cover if you’re not on the road, right?

At Naked, we’ve addressed this slightly obvious insurance flaw by creating the CoverPause feature. It allows you to pause your accident cover instantly when you won’t be needing it, by simply selecting the “Stationary Cover Only” option on the Naked app.

So for example, if you’re paying R600pm for full comprehensive cover for your car and you switch over to Stationary Cover while it’s parked in the garage or in an airport parking bay, your premium will decrease to around R350pm (billed pro rata) for that time. Of course, you’re still covered for absolutely anything that can happen to the car while it is parked: flood, fire, theft, the roof falling in, the cat scratching the leather seats - all of it.

When you get behind the wheel again, just tap “Resume Accident Cover” and you’re ready to go. Simple, right?

Will CoverPause change the world? Well, probably not. But we think it’s a step in the right direction. Because let’s face it: insurance has a lot of catching up to do. Join us as we take on the insurance dinosaur, one mystery at a time.