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Insurance Companies Try Out Auto Black Boxes
tekiegreg writes "It looks like the first black box test for auto insurance companies is underway. While this may be a privacy issue, it can also make better drivers out of everyone if insurance rates are adjustable based on the way everyone drives. This was covered on Slashdot before however this seems to be one of the first workups, that can even include tests on speed and braking, not just location."
Who are you kidding...this is going to turn into another way for them to raise rates and drop people. Sort of like health insurance won't cover some people unless they can pass a physical or charge inordinate amounts of money if you are a bit overweight.
The first time they clock you doing anything over 75 or 80 mph they'll probably be sending you notices. They start sensing sharp breaking and wild turns you may just find yourself without insurance. Chris Rock once said it should be called "in case shit" because you have in case shit happens. And you don't exactly get your money back if you don't. Now they'll see the shit coming and drop you before they have to make a payoff.
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
What it can do, is force everyone into driving with a black box. Driving without one will become prohibitively expensive, even though the statistics will show that with/without doesn't really affect the actual numbers.
Insurance is about getting you to pay for something that won't ever likely happen... want me to prove it? Keep having stupid accidents, and see if they don't drop you.
Yeah, people bitch about high insurance rates, but when an acceptable(?) solution comes around they seem to balk at it. After all, if you want a low rate, why not prove it? Is Big Brother/privacy concerns worth the $?
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It sound like the box just plugs in to the stardart OBD-II port found on all new (1996+) cars. If these things take off, I wonder how long until someone makes a box to spoof the signals? Though I am pretty sure that would count as insurance fraud.
The car insurance industry needs some serious tweaking. There is absolutely no justification for an insurance company to sit on 8 billion dollars while at the same time raising the rates on their customers. What we really need is cooperative insurance where everyone adds to the pool and the unused pool money gets returned to the contributors.
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Most new cars already already have a black box. It records things like acceleration level, braking inputs and vehicle speed.
So far as I know, it only holds data for a short time, but if you are involved in an accident, the data can (and has been) accessed by law enforcement.
something to think about?
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I had a psyc prof point out one time that if the various motor vehicle admins out there sent out a notice to everyone each year who did not get any points, the recognition alone was likely to cause some good. But, as a society, we are far more focused on pathology than what is good.
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Erick
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Cheers,
Erick
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Welcome to socialism :)
Okay kidding, I live in Canada, Saskatchewan to be specific. Our mandatory (auto) insurance comes from Saskatchewan Government Insurance. Its a regulated body. If they want to raise rates, they have to justify it. The most I have ever paid for insurance is $1000/year (for a '99 Sunfire GT in 99). There is a flat rate per car, not per driver. If you have a good driving record over the last few years, you get a small reduction up to I believe 7%. However, if you have a bad driving record, it can go over the base rate. It might not be perfect, but it does let safer drivers (or at least lucky ones) pay less than bad drivers.
In New Jersey, we have New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance. They give back a "dividend" at the end of the year of unused money, so to speak. I always get a couple hundred back.
If you want cooperative insurance, in the real sense of the word "co-op," there's NJ CURE, which stands for something that has the words "reciprocal exchange" in it. It's like a credit union for car insurance...the policyholders own the company, which is a non-profit group.
In NJ, you need your head examined if you don't get your car insurance through one of these two companies.
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Cheers,
Erick
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A very good point. The blackbox assumes bad behavior from the very start. After all, they're not going to give you the good rates unless you can prove you've been good. So if you can't prove you've been good-- the lack of a speeding ticket or screwed up fender will should tell you that. Isn't that why your damn rates go up? --then your aren't entitled to the "special" rate. I tend to agree with the parent here... This is either a very flawed study in human psychology or nothing more than a sad profit tool, probably a bit of both.
I mean one person is monitored being good, the other one is not monitored being good, but penalized. Kinda ironic in a society of presumed innocense. Frankly, I'll drop any insurance company that pulls this crap.
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I couldn't agree with you more. There is absolutely no reason a speed limit should be constant under all weather, traffic, and time conditions. Just last year, I was fortunate to drive a few hundred miles on Germany's Autobahns. Yes, I was cruising around 100 MPH for extended periods of time, but was this dangerous? No, not really (as a matter of fact, people were passing me at much faster speeds than that). There's something called lane manners that Germans seem to adhere to fairly well, meaning that they stick to the right lanes unless passing. Combine this with better driver education and awareness and you have a huge improvement in safety compared to that of the States. Also, when traffic becomes more congested or as the autobahn is near a city, a speed limit is often set in place with dynamic values according to various conditions.
I'm told the situation is better elsewhere in the States, but highways here in the north east (especially CT) are a joke. Many officials and media try to blame the high amount of accidents here on speeding, but after driving on some of Germany's excellent autobahns, I've come to realize that much of it here has to do with poorly designed roadways and lack of driver education.