Big Brother In Your Front Seat

Rick Zeman writes "Would you give up your privacy in your car to save a few bucks on your auto insurance? 'Safe' drivers who plug an electronic device into their vehicles will be then eligible for a discount on their insurance. They say, '...the device constantly tracks car speed. By comparing that with a clock in the TripSense device, the device figures how far the car goes, mapping it against the time of day. At the end of each policy term, the customer would download the data and see what discount he or she would get. Customers can see all their data before deciding to send it to Progressive, and can decide not to send it -- and not get extra discounts.' I wonder how soon it will be that everyone has one except those resigned to paying extra as with grocery 'convenience' cards."

Comments

And with that news

[Evets]

Porsche stock went down 22%

Re:No

[Dr. Bent]

You: Stay the f**k out of my life.

InsureCo: No problem. Have a nice day and good luck driving your car without insurance.

Re:No

[dartboard]

It's only mandated if you want to drive on public roads. If you build your own [private] highway system then you no longer need insurance. Easy-cheesey!

Re:go monopoly

[twbecker]

How about "Stay the fuck out of my car, eh?"

Re:No

[Xzzy]

> You know that, to save the children, eventually these things will be mandatory by law.

They couldn't enforce any such law on older vehicles. In this particular case, it would be any vehicle older than 1996, which is when the diagnostic adapter that this device uses started appearing.

I drive an early 60's, when I bought it it wasn't equipped with seat belts because at that point in history there were no seatbelt laws. First time I got pulled over for not wearing one it was quite fun to point out how I was exempt. I eventually installed some aftermarket ones because driving with no belt is plain out stupid, but the blank look the officer briefly gave me was well worth it. ;)

Considering the availability of vehicles, especially 1995 and earlier, you could go a long, long time snubbing any such law that was put in place.

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Re:No

[pizzaman100]

How can the device KNOW the speed limit when compared with the speed driven?

Simple, flood the road ways with an inverse tachyon matrix.

Re:No

[ArsonSmith]

RTFA!!! It uses GPS and proximity generated sonic cameras (cool tech, uses ultra sonic emiters to generate 3D images) to see what your are doing and where you are at all times. The insurance companies then take this information and send it to the NSA wher they process everything you have done over the past year and give you a terrist rating. This is then used to prioritize the people that it tracks with greater details. If you are given a high enough rateing a thought monitor will be installed. Unfortantly the thought monitor comes in the form of a very uncomfortable anal probe.

I know because I beta tested this system.