Anyone here using an insurance data collection device?

[widebody911]

My wife got a blurb in the mail from her insurance company (State Farm) claiming she could save 50% on her auto insurance. Of course this sucked her in, and she goes to the website which was long on marketing hype and short on details. Long story short, they want to install a device in her car to track speed, miles driven, accell & decel metrics, etc. It gets plugged into your OBDII port and xmits using cell phone signals.

It seems this concept has a name now: Usage-based insurance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The State Farm one seems offer extra features, such as the ability to track someone, so you can see if they got home safely. No, really. They also offer a service to alert you when your OBDII throws a code.

Have any of you fallen for this? Personally, I want nothing to do with it.

[Hugh R]

Nope, but I do know newer cars have a black box of sorts, and lawyers have been know to subpoena them when accidents occur.

[Brando]

Progressive started this. We saw this coming.

I still don't like it.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Brando

Progressive started this. We saw this coming.

I still don't like it.

Some of them have a GPS on them and transmit back to the company how fast you are going and where, so if you speed any you are "not a nice person" and goodby to any good insurance rates.

Its a tracking device and thats the last thing I want. Not doing anything wrong, its just none of their business!

There will never be one on any of my cars, course I will stop driving before using Progressive or Geico... spawn of the devil they are...

[john70t]

I used to have Farmers for a long time, until they decided to pull some sh%t and increase my rate something like 50% one year for no reason.
Dropped.
-Allstate and State Farm were out of the question: Too many complaints of not paying and/or giving customers the runaround.
The usual fraud.
-Geiko: I didn't know too much about, except they spend a lot of money on advertising which has to be recovered by the company....somehow...

Went with Progressive for many years, until I heard about that policy.
Dropped them like a hot rock within a week, and didn't even receive a refund check for the remaining time left on the policy (not much).

Ended up putting the car under an umbrella policy with an A+ rated company, and even saved a few hundred a year.

Nobody puts a GPS on my car without a warrant.
Why pay anything into a bad system?

[azasadny]

Not for me...

[H.G.P.]

How long before Fascist's Nation begins Mandate for this?

"Traffic-light camera" inside the vehicle = $$ extraction

[HHI944]

No way in hell.......geico would cancel me in two minutes if they used that crap.

[Noah930]

But if you're not doing anything illegal...

Geico used to either fund radar detector gun research or supply radar guns to police depts. Something conflict-of-interest shady like that. There was an article in Car & Driver probably about 20 years ago on that.

[porsche4life]

Glad the 944 doesn't have an OBD port....


To quote Mitch hedberg.... "Good luck f**kers!"

[HHI944]

I've had ups and downs from geico, bit overall more ups and they covered me through a patch of bad driving record in my teens......can't say their great, but I'm satisfied....

[A930Rocket]

No thanks.

[911_Dude]

No way in hell would I use one of those. No upside for me at all. I regularly speed, accel and decel hard on a regular basis, roll stops, accel on yellow lights, etc.
On second thought, would somebody stop me please?!

[recycled sixtie]

If I had that sucker plugged into my car it would record the occasional deviation from the speed limit and some impatience.
Big brother watching u? Forget it! I'll pass thanks.

[Schrup]

I'd rather give up driving. I have to put up with it at work. I got called into my supervisors office because I broke the speed limit 3 times during my patrol week merging onto the Interstate. That was my first shift after they activated the AVS system. I've had one shift since that was clean, but it makes driving at work stressful. Anymore, anything I do at work is recorded in one form or another, we have cameras everywhere.

On the other hand, I have become adept at using cruise control constantly & it has cut my driving stress to the point that I use it in my POV to save me from the city's motorcycle cops.

[Ronbo]

Before I retired from CIA there was a bulletin issued to all employees and contractors that no automobile fitted with one of these be driven to Agency HQ or outlying locations. I wonder what the plan is if these things are required at some point to obtain car insurance.

[Noah930]

Are these things able to record maximum cornering g-forces and lap times, too?

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Are these things able to record maximum cornering g-forces and lap times, too?

You can do that with your phone.

I could pass muster with the OBD thingy 99% of the time. It's the 1% that would keep me from having it. I guess there will always be a price for freedom.

[gshase]

We have 6 cars, sure you can install it in one of my cars for 30 days.

[Por_sha911]

1) 1984 seemed awfully far fetched back in 70's when I read it. Not so much now.
2) The less people accept this invasion of privacy, the longer it will take before the socialist agenda mandates it for the good of everyone (like some other things that just got added). Yeah I know, its a PARFy statement. OK, I'll do like the attorneys in court: the jury is instructed to not consider the last comment and the court recorder will strike that statement from the records.
3) Concerning the "you have nothing to worry about if you don't break the law" excuse: Even if you are a great driver, just one infraction 71 in a 70 mph zone technically means you have broken the law and they have the right to jack up your premiums.