[whitebread]

I can see where relying on a black box could get really hairy though. What if it’s a light storm that produces virtually no damage but the device produces a payout? What if the exact opposite happened? Who is programming and vetting the code?

[lllr_finger]

Great points. Basing a damage payout on anything besides actual damage feels counter-intuitive.

Insurance companies already know where heavy hail falls - there are several companies with products that correlate hail reports with the dual-pol radar Hydrometeor Classification Algorithm product.

Any sort of black box won't be able to assess the hardness of hail, the distribution of hail or how the wind is driving it. I've seen damage from dense, hard 1" hail cores, and I've driven through softball hail thrown out the back of a storm without any damage.