Elon Musk says California's insurance commissioner should be 'voted out of office' over car insurance prices

• Elon Musk said California's insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara should be voted out of office.
• Musk told Lara that his policies are responsible for Californians' high insurance prices.

Elon Musk said on Thursday that Ricardo Lara, California's insurance commissioner, should be "voted out of office" over car insurance prices.

The billionaire's comment came in response to Lara's tweet about what Musk said in Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

On the topic of Tesla Insurance, Musk said in the earnings call: "We are pushing very hard for California to change the rules to allow informatics, which basically means that you're as safe as you're driving is measured."

Musk said in the earnings call that if Tesla customers drive safely then their insurance will cost less, adding that it "rewards it monetarily."

"I think the current California rules are contrary to the best interest of the consumers in California and should be changed," Musk said in the earnings call.

Lara tweeted later: "Push all you want, but we won't bend on protecting consumer data, privacy and fair rates." Lara added in a follow-up tweet that California state has only allowed vehicle data to work out miles driven by each person.

In response, the Tesla CEO tweeted: "You should be voted out of office," adding in a later tweet: "Your policies are directly responsible for the outrageously high insurance premiums paid by Californians."

Tesla Insurance, which calculates prices through a customer's real-time driving behaviour, is available in Texas, Arizona, Illinois, and Ohio, per the company website.

Tesla Insurance is also known as a type of telematics insurance, which works out a price using technology to monitor people's driving. But reports have suggested that telematics insurance could breach data privacy.