Insurance Tracking Gizmos Keeping Tabs on Drivers

I've never paid much attention to "Flo" of Progressive Insurance fame where she offers a hair stylist a little gizmo during the course of getting her hair done. A friend informed me a couple of weeks ago that a new insurer sent her a similar gizmo to install on her car. (It plugs into the computer terminal under the dashboard.) She was told that it ONLY records her rate of stops and accelerations. It started out giving her 20 "points" and if she stops too fast or takes off too fast, she loses points. Yesterday she was down to 11 points remaining. She can earn points back if behaves her driving style. Her online scores are crazy. For example, it will show that she took three seconds to come a stop from 35mph, etc. Totally bogus time after time. This woman drives an '06 Tacoma four cylinder frequently in Austin traffic and is 77 years old.

I've been trying to tell her that thing is doing more sensing than the stops and starts. But she believes what the agent told her, that it only sense stopping and starting times equated with the speeds. Later, she was discussing the situation with a daughter-in-law and was told that the DIL's was told that the gizmo on her Mini recorded several parameters of the vehicle's operations including the use of turn signals and how long the signal was indicating before the turn was made. All of this tells me that this little device is very sophisticated. And of course, it gets its data from the car's computer.

I'm interested in any info other ATS folks may know about this system.

So I'm driving down the road nice and safe and a little kid jumps into the road. I slam the brakes to miss the kid thus proving im an aware and safe driver. Yay me... The little box just said I made an unsafe stop.

How exactly does anybody think this will ever be in their favor?

Those things are a complete joke. They have g sensors, accelerometers and the likes. They record everything from engine rpm, to wheel speed and everything in between. Probably have built in gps to tell what speed zone your in, to see if your speeding.

I would never use one on matter the deal they cut you.

These machines basically have the sane tech you find in a smart phone. They measure speed, acceleration, braking, time of journey, location and even if you have an accident. As far as I know none of the ones out at the moment monitor card data such as rpm as they are not connected to the cars electronics (this would be too costly to manufacture).
They are a good way of getting lower premiums if you fall into a higher risk category. However you are providing your insurance company with a lot of information.

1. Insurance is a scam ..
2. get an old car without all the electronics and computerised rubbish.
3. if must have new car find a kid who can hack have him mod the gadget from the insurance company ..

a reply to: Aliensun

These things are common on proejct minging and oil and gas construction sites in Australia. Pretty soon they will become compulsory albeit unoffically comulsory at first.

You can see how they are being introduced, here in Australia anyway

First, the employer makes them madoatory in the safe of occupational health and safety.

Then the little old ladies of both genders agree that they are a good idea that youg drivers should have them.

The insurance companies offer them on a voluntry basis.

Then the insurance companies say, hay, you dont have to have it but you will get x% discount if you have them.

Then the insurance companies say, well if you want insurance you will need to get one.

Sufficient numbers of people have them by this this time that the goverment can get away with passing legisaltion making them mandatory.

Then, when that has settled down and become normalised, there is talk about using them instead of speed camers and police on the road. The 'sugggestion' is to make all owners take their cars to a place where a cable gets plugged into the car, you put your credit card into a slot and wait 10 seconds and out comes a receipt for all the money that has been deducated from your banck account for all times you:

exceeded the speed limit for each consecutive xyz metres
for every time your indicator failed to flash x times before you changed lanes or turned a corner
for each time you applied xyz brake or accelarator pressure,no matter the reason.
for each you ....... I think you get the drift.

All the sheeple say in unison, what a wonderfull idea, lets hit all them hoons where it hurts the most. You will be able listen to them kill to be the first on talk back radio to support the idea.

Then the government, insurance companies and the NWO trypes lay back and laugh their box off the stupid sheeple take the p*ss out them.

originally posted by: learnatic
a reply to: Aliensun

These things are common on proejct minging and oil and gas construction sites in Australia. Pretty soon they will become compulsory albeit unoffically comulsory at first.

You can see how they are being introduced, here in Australia anyway

First, the employer makes them madoatory in the safe of occupational health and safety.

Then the little old ladies of both genders agree that they are a good idea that youg drivers should have them.

The insurance companies offer them on a voluntry basis.

Then the insurance companies say, hay, you dont have to have it but you will get x% discount if you have them.

Then the insurance companies say, well if you want insurance you will need to get one.

Sufficient numbers of people have them by this this time that the goverment can get away with passing legisaltion making them mandatory.

Then, when that has settled down and become normalised, there is talk about using them instead of speed camers and police on the road. The 'sugggestion' is to make all owners take their cars to a place where a cable gets plugged into the car, you put your credit card into a slot and wait 10 seconds and out comes a receipt for all the money that has been deducated from your banck account for all times you:

exceeded the speed limit for each consecutive xyz metres
for every time your indicator failed to flash x times before you changed lanes or turned a corner
for each time you applied xyz brake or accelarator pressure,no matter the reason.
for each you ....... I think you get the drift.

All the sheeple say in unison, what a wonderfull idea, lets hit all them hoons where it hurts the most. You will be able listen to them kill to be the first on talk back radio to support the idea.

Then the government, insurance companies and the NWO trypes lay back and laugh their box off the stupid sheeple take the p*ss out them.

I quoted your full post because much of the content is exactly how internet users came to "accept" the arrival and elaborate extensions of the seemingly innocent "cookies" back in the '90s. Not only are these efforts of surveillance, but they are instruments of subtle control exactly like an electronic ankle bracelet used on criminals.

I hate the scam of insurance companies.

I recently had my rate go up over $100/6 months. Why? I've never had an accident, never had to make a claim. No, doesn't matter. They call it in the paperwork "new car discount reduced". Discount? Yeah, right. More like an excuse to charge me more at a later date. As far as little plug in's go, I'll never use one. However, my car has OnStar (no longer active) but they collect information such as your location, speed you're traveling, and if you or your passengers are wearing seatbelts. They also sell this information (I'm sure insurance companies love that). Yes, I still drive this car knowing they are probably listening to me talk to myself and sing terribly to the radio, but I can't remove the OnStar module. It's integrated into the hands free/ radio/Bluetooth /cruise control module which are all things I like about this car. About all I can do is unplug the OnStar GPS antenna and the microphone.

On another note, I work in an auto body shop. I deal with these companies on a daily basis. They never pay enough for material, never give you enough time for straightening/repairing, and sometimes it's even months before we get a check, especially with supplements...

On top of that, all but two insurance companies stopped sending out adjusters. Now, we, the body shops, have to do their job for them. Yes, we write our own estimates anyway, but now we have to get pictures of the damage (which doesn't always show up on camera), the VIN, and mileage, and email that to an adjuster. I'm sure there's a lot of laid off adjusters thanks to this, since they just stay in an office all day now and don't check out the cars for themselves anymore. The worst offender is State Farm, who instead of emailing the adjuster directly, require you to email some generic email that is then sorted by some unnecessary middle man to the adjuster it needs to go to, and they can only handle one or two 1MP pictures attached per email, so it sometimes requires me to send several emails over one accident. Then companies like the little slimy lizard try to steer people towards their "preferred" body shops to get estimates instead of letting the customer decide. The only two companies that still send adjusters are Progressive and Nationwide, and I appreciate that, even though Nationwide is the one scamming me over that so called "new car discount" I mentioned earlier.

I wouldn`t worry too much about those insurance company gizmos we have much bigger things to worry about, google connected cars.
Did you know about this?

Obama Bypasses Congress to Mandate Black Boxes for All Cars -- Beginning in '14

EDRs do not collect any personal identifying information or record conversations and do not run continuously, according to LaHood.....But Horace Cooper of the National Center for Public Policy Analysis called the move “an unprecedented breach of privacy for Americans.”...Cooper said that contrary to what is being claimed, EDRs “can and will track the comings and goings of car owners and even their passengers.”

Black boxes, he said, are already being used to track myriad activities -- and what they can record is virtually unlimited, he said.

“EDRs not only provide details necessary for accident investigation, they can also track travel records, passenger usage, cell phone use and other private data -- who you visit, what you weigh, how often you call your mother and more is captured by these devices,” he said.

cnsnews.com...

www.edmunds.com...

AAA magazine had really good article about this at the end of last year.
it seems like they mandated these black boxes when nobody was looking,most people don`t even know about it.

All vehicles made after September 2014 and sold in the U.S. have to have these spy boxes installed on them.