View Poll Results: Would you get it to Save $'s ?
Yes, anyway to save Money $ : )
3
37.50%
No Way do I want to be watched..I'm pay the $'s
5
62.50%
Voters: 8. You may not vote on this poll
Trade Your Privacy For Cheaper Car Insurance ?
#1
Trade Your Privacy For Cheaper Car Insurance ?
How You'll Trade Your Privacy For Cheaper Car Insurance
America's auto insurers will push for new driver monitoring systems, such as in-car video cameras, as a way to cut costs and crashes. Who needs driverless cars when all drivers could soon get an electronic nanny?
In recent years insurers have started using various systems, including GM's OnStar, to check the miles driven claimed by their customers. But upcoming new technologies go much further; gathering and reporting data about exactly how people drive.
Progressive Insurance already has about 100,000 customers signed up for its Snapshot (formerly known as MyDrive) device. It's a dongle that plugs into a vehicle's diagnostic port, collecting data about stops, speed and driving time for at least 30 days while wirelessly reporting that data back to Progressive. Drivers who meet Progressive's standards can qualify for a 25%t to 30% discount.
Progressive's program is voluntary; hoon-prone drivers can check their results online, and if they're not getting a discount, they can opt out. (In some states, Progressive can use the data to raise rates, but says opting out drops the increase.) After six months of monitoring, Progressive says the discount becomes permanent — at least until they decide that they want the policy to change, at which point Progressive may want another Snapshot.
Today, Progressive offers the program in 24 states, but will add another 15 states in the next several months, and told Wall Street analysts last month it plans a nationwide ad campaign for the service early next year.
http://jalopnik.com/5704284/meet-you...yline=true&s=i
Source & Vid
There's more than one way to play virtual back-seat driver. Starting Jan. 1, California will allow in-car cameras, a boon to California-based DriveCam, which has 150,000 users among commercial truck drivers and parents of teen-age drivers so far. It's system records video clips of the driver and front of the vehicle just before and after a crash along with data about the car's movement, and is already frequently used to determine who's at fault in a crash. In 17 states parents can get the $900 system for free through an insurance company trial. And unlike Snapshot, which requires a data port that's not found in older models, DriveCam can be installed in any kind of vehicle.
Such systems have caught on faster in Europe, but experts inside and outside the insurance industry expect so-called behavior-based policies to become standard within a decade. If monitors reduce crashes among business fleets, it's easy to imagine how attractive they would be to banks and finance companies when writing car loans or leases. As one Allstate exec said at a recent industry conference: "This innovation seems cutting-edge today, but in the future it will be a given, just like air bags and seatbelts."
The difference? The cost and benefits of air bags and seat belts belonged with the car's owner, who didn't have to surrender any privacy for them. The typical American driver pays roughy $1,000 a year for car insurance, and rates have been rising faster than inflation in the past year. Discounts are nice, but insurers should clearly show just how much these nannies will save them and how much of those savings go back to customers. They also should show the customers exactly what data they're taking, when they're taking it and what precisely they'll be doing with it. If they want to peer over our shoulders, we should be able to do the same.
America's auto insurers will push for new driver monitoring systems, such as in-car video cameras, as a way to cut costs and crashes. Who needs driverless cars when all drivers could soon get an electronic nanny?
In recent years insurers have started using various systems, including GM's OnStar, to check the miles driven claimed by their customers. But upcoming new technologies go much further; gathering and reporting data about exactly how people drive.
Progressive Insurance already has about 100,000 customers signed up for its Snapshot (formerly known as MyDrive) device. It's a dongle that plugs into a vehicle's diagnostic port, collecting data about stops, speed and driving time for at least 30 days while wirelessly reporting that data back to Progressive. Drivers who meet Progressive's standards can qualify for a 25%t to 30% discount.
Progressive's program is voluntary; hoon-prone drivers can check their results online, and if they're not getting a discount, they can opt out. (In some states, Progressive can use the data to raise rates, but says opting out drops the increase.) After six months of monitoring, Progressive says the discount becomes permanent — at least until they decide that they want the policy to change, at which point Progressive may want another Snapshot.
Today, Progressive offers the program in 24 states, but will add another 15 states in the next several months, and told Wall Street analysts last month it plans a nationwide ad campaign for the service early next year.
http://jalopnik.com/5704284/meet-you...yline=true&s=i
Source & Vid
There's more than one way to play virtual back-seat driver. Starting Jan. 1, California will allow in-car cameras, a boon to California-based DriveCam, which has 150,000 users among commercial truck drivers and parents of teen-age drivers so far. It's system records video clips of the driver and front of the vehicle just before and after a crash along with data about the car's movement, and is already frequently used to determine who's at fault in a crash. In 17 states parents can get the $900 system for free through an insurance company trial. And unlike Snapshot, which requires a data port that's not found in older models, DriveCam can be installed in any kind of vehicle.
Such systems have caught on faster in Europe, but experts inside and outside the insurance industry expect so-called behavior-based policies to become standard within a decade. If monitors reduce crashes among business fleets, it's easy to imagine how attractive they would be to banks and finance companies when writing car loans or leases. As one Allstate exec said at a recent industry conference: "This innovation seems cutting-edge today, but in the future it will be a given, just like air bags and seatbelts."
The difference? The cost and benefits of air bags and seat belts belonged with the car's owner, who didn't have to surrender any privacy for them. The typical American driver pays roughy $1,000 a year for car insurance, and rates have been rising faster than inflation in the past year. Discounts are nice, but insurers should clearly show just how much these nannies will save them and how much of those savings go back to customers. They also should show the customers exactly what data they're taking, when they're taking it and what precisely they'll be doing with it. If they want to peer over our shoulders, we should be able to do the same.
Last edited by Space; 12-06-2010 at 06:32 AM.
#2
I would allow the camera for cheaper insurance. No longer than 6 months though. I don't do anything illegal in my car anymore so I wouldn't mind the data tracking.
#3
This has to be sponsored in part by FOX TV network. Insurance company will make $$ selling videos to TruTV or the like. :p
I'll pay to keep my life a little more private thankyouverymuch.
I'll pay to keep my life a little more private thankyouverymuch.
#4
Id drive without insurance b4 Id use a cam. The other day I got a letter in the mail tellin me I had to send proof of insurance on my Chevy Astro. The state gave me 30 days to do so and if I didnt they said they would take my license for 90 days. Afew weeks b4 I got that letter I got a certificate from the same place for a perfect driving record. Its kinda like saying that Im a great driver but Im not honest. Well proof is on the way.
I aint saying Im a perfect driver. I just dont get caught lol.
I aint saying Im a perfect driver. I just dont get caught lol.
#6
There's cameras in the streets, shakedowns at Walmart, store club cards logging your food buying habits (ohhh Little Debbie you will get me in trouble), Google guessing what ads to throw at you and other little intrusions to privacy that Americans willingly surrender against.
Hear about the finance company that puts disabling devices in cars sold to high risk customers? Miss a payment and car no start-ie.
I do keep meaning to neuter the unused OnStar system. I've hit the blue button by accident twice. Should be nothing more than yanking the power at the box, eh? Will scare the poop out of me if it tries to reattach itself or send me messages in the DIC*.
Now, in a professional commercial vehicle I got no objections. Make sure truckers are safe and get paid for their work. Let employers know where their fleet trucks are at all times. But privately owned cars - MYOB State Farm.
*The DIC surprised me the other morning. Pulled out into the street and the sounder goes off then the message center in the speedometer tells me it's freezing cold and to be careful. Uhhh, thanks KITT now shut up and let me drive.
Hear about the finance company that puts disabling devices in cars sold to high risk customers? Miss a payment and car no start-ie.
I do keep meaning to neuter the unused OnStar system. I've hit the blue button by accident twice. Should be nothing more than yanking the power at the box, eh? Will scare the poop out of me if it tries to reattach itself or send me messages in the DIC*.
Now, in a professional commercial vehicle I got no objections. Make sure truckers are safe and get paid for their work. Let employers know where their fleet trucks are at all times. But privately owned cars - MYOB State Farm.
*The DIC surprised me the other morning. Pulled out into the street and the sounder goes off then the message center in the speedometer tells me it's freezing cold and to be careful. Uhhh, thanks KITT now shut up and let me drive.
#7
I don't like this at all. This is also the first I've heard of such monitoring. My problem with it is its sounds nice to say your getting a discount, but thats just a way of promoting this in the industry. You watch, the insurance companies will continue to drive rates up to force this and soon enough your discounted price will be the same as what you would have been paying before such an invention. In the end, it will be more like you have to pay a penalty fee for not surrendering your privacy and these cameras will become standard. In the end, the insurance companies get it all. I hate that.
I agree with Barovelli that this has reasonable commercial usage, but that is it!
Fight this!
I agree with Barovelli that this has reasonable commercial usage, but that is it!
Fight this!
#9
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 4,861
From: Georgia
What's next, health insurers putting cameras in your house to see what you eat, how much you smoke, drink, excercise and sleep???? But this is America afterall, if people want to voluntarily sell their right to privacy for lower rates then let them. I am not a sell out.