Even though Metromile was groundbreaking with its pay-per-mile insurance, it certainly wasn't the first to provide usage-based cover.

In fact, the earliest documented paper insurance policy, a commercial policy, dated February 13, 1343, covered 10 bales of linen on their trip from Pisa to Sicily on the Santa Catalina. It was a pay-per-use policy on a temporary shipment of cargo — right in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.

Fast forward 673 years and we are entering an era where usage-based insurance and pay-as-you-go (drive-live-travel-ship, and more) coverage is coming into vogue. The big difference with this Renaissance, however, is that technology and insurance coverage is unlikely to trend back toward aggregates and is highly likely to trend permanently toward individualized, contextualized, point-in-time based, data and analytics based pricing and use. There's no going back … only forward.