California's Revised Pay-As-You-Drive Insurance Draws Continued Objections

The EFF has restated many of their original privacy objections about California's latest revision to the Pay-As-You-Drive auto insurance proposal. Admitting that the amended bill is an improvement, privacy advocates are still uneasy about the surveillance implications of this program. "The proposal centers on a simple idea: infrequent drivers are less of an insurance risk. By pricing policies according to the mileage driven, insurance companies can offer discounts to lower-risk infrequent drivers, and put an appropriate cost penalty on heavy drivers. The state estimates that 30% adoption of PAYD insurance nationwide would reduce miles driven by at least 10% among subscribers, and save 55 million tons of CO2 over the next ten years. The benefits of such a system could be quite dramatic, as California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is sure to emphasize. Such insurance plans first became available in 2004, and are now available as a limited option in 30 US states from insurance companies like Progressive and Liberty Mutual."

Comments

Re:Oh crap.

[Anonymous Coward]

C02 = Plant Food.
"Global Warming" is the biggest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind.

What's so difficult about it?

[matt4077]

Not going to RTFA article, but I can't see how you could screw this up. Let everyone self-report their mileage and then recover whatever you had to pay out if an accident occurs and mileage is off by more than 20% or so. That's the system used here (Europe) and I've never heard anyone complain about it. No privacy violations involved, either. If you don't trust the self-reporting, it'd be easy to verify mileage in regular intervals by tying it to i. e. existing mandatory emissions & safety checks.

Milliage RISK

[Archangel Michael]

I drive from Nor Cal to So Cal, over 500 miles, one way, several times a year to visit family. I'm at far less risk than grandma Owho barely drives 500 miles in a month, or the teen who is an idiot with her cell phone (even though it is illegal already) or ....

THIS is the problem with Government. It is a ONE SIZE FITS ALL program that doesn't fit anyone. I've been driving over 20 years, with exactly 4 accidents, none of them my fault.

I have a 13 year old vehicle, bought new, with 150,000 miles on it, that hasn't had one insurance claim. I know some people who can't make 40K without totalling their vehicle.

Everytime someone says ... "there ought to be a law" get ready to bend over!