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.
You’d 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 study comes out claiming people that listen to podcasts while driving are infinitesimally more likely to cause an accident than people that listen to music, and whoops, Michael Barbaro has been your constant companion on every morning commute for the last 4 years. That’s a pattern of risky behavior.
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.
That’s what we did. We were told the negative criteria were frequent driving, night driving, and all the driving BS you’d expect - hard stops, fast corners, etc. The company used a phone app, so we only installed it on my phone, had it disabled most of the time, and enabled it once or twice a week for a painfully slow drive to the grocery store just around the corner.
We had an amazing score which resulted in… No discount! We actually paid more. We got some bullshit low percentage off which was simultaneously offset by a mid-year rate increase. They claimed they had to reevaluate our rates any time they added a discount. Total bullshit.
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.
LOL I always knew that creepy Life360 shit would come back to bite people in the ass eventually.
Nope, because I drive an 03 Jetta lol
Edit: I’m also quite selective about the stuff I install on my phone, and nothing has “always on” location data.
And what happens when you inevitably have to change it?
If you mean my car: I am the warranty, at this point. I will be driving that fucker into the ground. And then I will find another used, fun, manual transmission car, because I absolutely hate automatic transmissions on my daily driver. Manual is way more fun and engaging. No, I do not mind using it in traffic at all, and I’ve lived in LA with a manual transmission.
If you mean my phone: I don’t understand how you’ve phrased question.
I meant, eventually you’ll run out of options and, even if buying used, you may be stuck with models that have all the tracking crap
pulls fuse for 4/5G car modem out
Oh dear! Looks like it broke!
Your move, car companies.
Edit: side note: not sure why it seems that you’re negging me for trying to wring as much life as possible out of a car? This is a very reasonable and feasible approach to take if you’re somewhat mechanically inclined, as I am.
not sure why it seems that you’re negging me for trying to wring as much life as possible out of a car? This is a very reasonable and feasible approach to take if you’re somewhat mechanically inclined, as I am.
Absolutely not. Sorry if I came across that way, I am actually on your “team” and plan to do the same with my current 7 year old car. I am not super mechanically inclined but I have learned enough for the basic maintenance: brakes, oil changes, general diagnostics.
The reason I was kind of grilling you is because I am looking ahead and thinking I will find myself in your spot. Eventually I will have to replace the car and I have no clue what to get that does not imply: 1) being spied on by the car and 2) paying for hardware that is useless unless I also pay a subscription.
Now back to the original point. Sure today you can pull a fuse and maybe disable the spying; specially since the car would be out of warranty or you don’t care to risk losing it. However, if the trends continue, this could be something that renders your car uninsurable and would mean not legal to drive.
On my last insurance renewal, Belair argued heatedly with me because I refused to add their app on my phone to track my “driver behaviour”. They insisted it would lead to a discount but I refused anyway. If they make it a mandatory requirement of insurance, we are fucked.
Fair enough. And no worries - tone sometimes gets lost or misinterpreted when commenting on the intertubes :)
Honestly, by the time we get to that point, I hope that mass transit has improved enough such that a car is no longer critical to have in most urban/semi-urban areas of America. But that also depends heavily on how politics pan out in the coming years.
For what it’s worth, I absolutely agree that the pervasive data-gathering bullshit they are trying to push on everyone is messed up.
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.
It’s a scam, anyway. I did it once with Progressive when I got my first car. Had good ratings, was promised a solid discount. Next bill comes and it’s the same amount as the previous bill. I call them and they say that the rate went up but with the discount it conveniently went back to the old rate.
I drive an electric vehicle and the unfortunate reality is, that brakes that are large enough for an emergency stop get underutilized during everyday, regenerative braking. So they rust.
My solution is: Every time I get back to our village in wet weather, I accelerate hard on the last long straight and brake hard to almost a standstill once. No more brake trouble, all four rotors squeaky clean, but any measuring device would write me up as the biggest idiot on the roads out there.
I don’t do this and my rotors are fine.
The severity of the problem depends on external factors:
- do you live in a dry and salt-free environment? No problem.
- did the maker of your car implement disc wiping as a precaution? No problem.
- did the maker of your car implement intermittent brake blending during recuperation? No problem.
- is your car less driven in wet and salty conditions and then always store in a dry, warm garage? No problem.
- does your car have drumsin the rear and near-undersized discs in the front? Less of a problem.
