Our insurance company offered a rate reduction if we installed a device on the cars to monitor how we drove. It we met whatever metric they set we’d get a discount for “safe driving”.
Hell no. I’m paying full price to not have them looking over my shoulder while driving.
Because you know that the data will be sold, or even used to classify your risk as a driver and potentially raise your rates. There’s nothing altruistic about these companies.
To anyone who doesn't believe you and thinks they might actually he able to get better rates through an app like that...
You know how health insurance companies companies charge hefty premiums with ridiculously high copays, but you figure "If I really need something covered, though, they'll pay it and I won't go bankrupt", but yet they still find a way to have so few scruples that they'll fight you on the services you have them billed for because they are a corporation beholden to shareholders and will do everything in their power to hang onto every single dollar possible?
I just want to be able to corner hard and accelerate hard and do some spirited driving in a safe area without that info getting sold to insurance companies…
The article photo looks like these three women have slowed down to get a good look at me as I struggle to keep my food away from three hungry raccoons in my underwear (me in my underwear, not the raccoons) on my front lawn next to a bouncy castle the raccoons have all but taken over at this point.
Honestly at that point how much can you guarantee that none of those raccoons has been inside your underwear, at least partially with a claw or something?
At the rate things are going they probably will take your underwear as well.
Nah, mine is pretty upfront about it. You can even opt in to get a device that plugs into your car to give them even more data to lower your premium if you're actually a good driver. That shit started when I was still in high school, too. Nobody else remember Flo from Progressive hawking these things?
and do you have one of those? Because form what I hear they beep when you're being a good drive too and you end up being a worse (than good) driver trying not to get the beeps
I do. It doesn't make any sounds or have any lights. Thing you're describing sounds more like a similar device I know people busted with DUIs end up with forced to being used. It's beeping because it wants them to blow again since it's detecting them driving like shit and thinks they're drunk.
I had one and it definitely beeped if the light turned yellow and I stopped rather than blowing through a red light. It was a frustrating experience because it would happen even when driving a safe speed. You don't get dinged unless you have too many of them, but I suspect in a busy city with stop and go traffic it could be tough. I did end up. With the maximum discount though so it didn't end up being a big deal.
Yes. Not like I was slamming on my brakes, but it was a harder brake than normal. It was pretty sensitive imo, but think they are trying to detect people that are driving too closely to the person in front of them.
There are legal hurdles to raising rates based on this data. The simple and obvious solution is to set the starting price as the worst-case driver scenario, then discount down from that.
Driving behavior analysis, or telematics, as the insurance industry calls it, could be better for consumers, leading to personalized rates that are more fair. Plus, if people have to pay more for their risky driving, they may drive more cautiously, leading to safer roads. But this will happen only if drivers are aware that their behavior is being monitored.
I'm so sick of this shit.
Just like the stop sign cameras, this only increases safety by penalizing and then monetizing minor mistakes that humans make. This is not about safety, it's about maximizing income through technological micromanaging of drivers who have not caused an accident and were not in danger of causing one.
It also have to be a damn fool not to realize that all the data they're collecting may not apply to their rate structure today, but in the future that rate structure will change, and suddenly a history of driver data you let them gather about you goes from being unremarkable to indicative of a problem.
The shareholders are demanding a blood sacrifice, so rates suddenly go up for people that have a driver score beneath a certain threshold where previously that threshold was higher
Or some new bullshit studies come out claiming people that listen to podcasts while driving are infinitesimally more likely to cause an accident then people that listen to music, and whoops, Michael Barbaro has been your constant companion on every morning commute for the last 4 years.
And if they think that this monitoring is going to help anything when people know about it, they need to learn about Goodharts' Law:
When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure
As soon as this becomes a thing people will get anxious and petty about it, and they will start trying to game the system, and that system gaming will take some portion of their focus away from driving and guess what, that's going to make them worse drivers.
I drive my car like I stole it. I will continue to drive my car and beat on it like it owes me money. I will never put a dongle in my obd2 port from my insurance company. I will never have any stupid app I don't need on my phone and my car is no longer hooked up to onstar. Fuck that. You put that shit in your car, you will never see lower rates, you'll just see smarter advertising. However, if you drive like me, I'm sure they'll charge you more or drop you.
This is actually the thing that gives me most privacy assurance. My car company does offer this as an insurance product to themselves, transparently. Since they’re honest about this part of it, and have less profit incentive to those of us who don’t agree, I’m a bit assured that they are not motivated to sell my data to my actual insurer
If you think your insurance company isn’t selling your data to other companies, you are in for a surprise.
My insurance company, for example, requires so many permissions for their app, just to show my insurance coverage. I refuse to use it because they don’t need my contacts, calendar, use details, phone information, location, network status, and whatever else they are asking for. They have no use for this information, so why would they collect it? Oh right, because they are greedy and consider customers to be multiple revenue streams.
Part of the privacy policy for using the app is agreeing to be a product for them. Hard pass. I give them more than enough money considering they have never paid out a single fucking penny for anything (tho we’ll see how I feel tomorrow when the adjuster comes out to inspect the storm damage to my roof - probably the same.)
If a scammy company like insurance is doing a thing, you can bet they are not being benevolent. They are taking whatever you give them and it will fuck you eventually.
UPS drivers have been dealing with telematics for 20+ years. It tracks stuff like whether you back before you park or afterwards. How far you back. If your seatbelt is being used. If your cargo door is open while driving. Vehicle speed. Etc.
Jokes on them, I drive recklessly as hell and in twenty years am at fault for zero accidents, while my wife hates driving with me and drives incredibly cautiously and has been at fault in accidents. Can the algorithm see past 'this person accelerates quicker therefore should have a higher premium" because otherwise I feel like the old system was working. It was frustrating to pay more as a young male driver, but I've proven myself and my abilities behind the wheel and wish to continue to pay accordingly.
Im sure they can. Insurance companies love data. While someone like you might fly under their radar with crash statistics, it might be worthwhile to flag you as low risk for crash, but if in a crash high risk for multi-fatility crash. This would mean a bigger potential payout for them and they might want to risk adjust you. I'd advocate that just about anyone should try to protect their own data and avoid sharing this info with insurance companies.
No. I'll admit my verbage could probably use some work, but oh well. Many traffic laws exist to fund police departments. I obey the laws that are grounded in reality. I've driven professionally and if 10000 hours of practice makes mastery then I've easily at least tripled that, easy. If you're imagining someone driving like a complete douche that's probably not me, as I'm extremely considerate of other drivers, having no faith in their abilities or perceptions. But I hate being in a car and when I'm driving I want it to end as quickly as possible so I will speed through a yellow if there's visibility both ways and no cross traffic and I will speed on empty highways and I will treat traffic lights like four-way stops if there's no one else on the road. Etc
Sounds like something an irresponsible wreckless chode would do. I hope you're just kidding because I wouldn't want you to be an irresponsible wreckless chode.
The entire second to last sent where you listed being wreckless and then ignoring that stop lights aren't in fact stop signs. Running red lights is very chode-like, speeding to get through yellows is wreckless, and both are irresponsible.
I'll reiterate the above examples are on empty roads, I don't take chances with other drivers. That being said there's no world where I'm wasting several minutes and gas just because a timer clicked off. I am a human being and while I respect machines and the intentions with which they were designed, machines hold no authority over me. And if it's weight based and you ride a motorcycle you literally have no other choice as the bike won't set it off. You can run the light or wait possibly hours for another vehicle to set it off for you. So if that makes me a chode then I guess I'm a big ol' tuna can.
I've witnessed plenty of chodes that think there are no other drivers on the road out between cities just running stop signs or lights getting into accidents because they weren't as alone as they thought.
I am a human being
Exactly. You're not perfect, and you will eventually fuck up and possibly hurt someone else or yourself if you don't adhere to driving safety 100% of the time you're behind the wheel.
Even professional drivers on an empty race track make mistakes. Don't think you're infallible just because you've been lucky so far.
It's pretty well established that women tend to get into more accidents than men, but they tend to be minor fender benders that don't cost all that much, while men tend to cause accidents very rarely, but when we do, multiple vehicles are destroyed and people die, and that's a great deal more expensive in the long run. So you haven't had an at fault accident in 20 years, doesn't mean you won't destroy a school bus tomorrow.
My daughter has been trying to get me to install this for years. My refusal has been vindicated! I kept telling her I don't trust it. And she drives like me and her premiums are nuts even for her age and she's been lucky and has a great driving record.
My driving is being non-secretly scored, I have an app just for that. Currently it just complains that I have power saving mode on all the time, so I don't know if it's not working or if it is and I just can't see the results anymore. (I'm not turning off power saving mode.)
I'm inclined to think this should be illegal because it could lead to a situation where insurance is unavailable to or unaffordable for anyone who doesn't opt in to fairly invasive tracking.
It is kinda like that. We have a tracker that we added because they increased the insurance rate and said if you install this device we'll keep the rate low based on driving patterns.
Basically records how often you drive, hard break/sharp turns, after midnight drives, etc. We don't drive the car often so the prob of accident is low but we recently learned that they can consider not driving enough also bad saying it can make you drive recklessly or sth.
It's also illegal in most jurisdictions. My point isn't that anyone should drive without insurance, but that allowing insurance companies to offer discounts for accepting spying will lead to the spying being effectively mandatory for most people.
I installed the app, did initial setup, then forced it to never update, shut off internet access, and disabled notifications. Still seeing the discount nearly 3 years later.
Does it actually tell you the results? I'm curious how they score your driving, and how effective it is. The scariest things I see on the road are things like:
distracted driving
tailgating
lack of awareness
I don't see how they'd measure how safe a driver you are.
Perhaps it's just that people are more careful when they know they're being monitored, and safe drivers are more likely to opt in?
Tailgating is actually pretty easy to measure - there are specific patterns of braking and acceleration.
Innatention may be measurable too. For example, if an inattentive driver frequently drifts from the center of the lane and makes small quick corrections periodically, that would be apparent from accelerometer data.
For each trip it tells you things like how often you touch your phone, what % of the trip you spent using your phone, and how many times you braked hard (which is a proxy for things like tailgating or general inattentiveness, since it can't see the road). Mostly it seems to be a "don't use your phone" score. There's an overall score, and you can see how big your discount is, but the score itself is largely meaningless without the ability to compare to other drivers.
Does it have any mechanisms to detect someone who might just install the app on an old phone that just lives in the glove box? Seems like a real easy way to get around the "don't use your phone" aspect.
I think you need to use the same phone number you signed up with, but other than that I don't know. If you signed up with a burner phone, maybe you could do that.
I don't know, but mine guesses correctly when I'm a passenger about 90% of the time. Unlike the other commenter, mine doesn't have a bluetooth connection to my car or a device in my car.
Once in a while I have to tell it I'm not driving.
Lawmakers seem to have developed a strangely keen interest in where exactly we put our dicks and the very personal repercussions of any new genetic material created from any of this dick placement.
They don't seem to have any time at all for corporate abuse of the populous at large. I guess the problem perhaps is that while corporations are people, they don't have dicks?
Pretty much every single car made in the last 5 years has it. And it's been in cars starting in the 90s so just because your car is a 2015 doesn't mean it's safe.
Every car. Not pretty much every one, but every one. Telemetry boxes have been around for a while and you can even get Telemetry Insurance if you have one. I think by 2015 all manufacturers had them.
If you care about not being tracked, look up how to remove the cellular modem in your car. I found instructions on how to do this with my vehicle and it's pretty easy.
Of course not. I just don't think car ownership is going anywhere for decades. The government doesn't move that fast for anything. I asked in another place in the thread why the guy thought that but just got downvoted for some reason.
