Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Uber's Smartphone-Based Gyrometer Monitoring Seems To Be the Future of Driving (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the are-we-there-yet dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Uber has announced that it has been conducting trials in Houston, Texas, since late 2015 which use data from the gyrometer in drivers' smartphones, combined with accelerometer and GPS data, to perform forensic analysis on Uber journeys where the customer flagged up errant driving behavior such as speeding or tailgating. Uber's post also indicates that talking on a phone whilst driving may be included as a factor in safety-oriented trials. The auto-insurers' move from dedicated telematics technology to smartphone-based data provision was spearheaded by British insurer Aviva in 2012, with massive U.S. insurer Progressive now actively pursuing driver monitoring. However the premium reductions are diminishing as the practice heads from experimental, to default, to obligatory — or so many believe.

5 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Tracking drivers doesn't seem progressive by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Do insurers really believe people drive the same way when they know the monitoring device is plugged in?

    I've watched a few episodes of Cops, and the roadside interviews on camera are astonishingly more polite than some I've experienced.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:Tracking drivers doesn't seem progressive by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do insurers really believe people drive the same way when they know the monitoring device is plugged in?

      Of course people drive differently when being monitored 100% of the time. That's kind of the point here, behavior modification to make driving safer.

      I've watched a few episodes of Cops, and the roadside interviews on camera are astonishingly more polite than some I've experienced.

      Polite or not, every time I see a "roadside" interview I want to drive a sign into the ground that reads "PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE NARCISSISTS".

      Pretty much sums up the benefit of that activity.

  2. Forces 2 phone workaround by Serialkoala · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, then Uber drivers and anyone else being monitored for insurance etc, will resort to carrying 2 phones. One tied to their car, one for calling/texting so they can do both simultaneously and not get dinged.

  3. Obligatory my ass ... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    However the premium reductions are diminishing as the practice heads from experimental, to default, to obligatory -- or so many believe

    I don't have a smart phone, and I don't want one.

    Unless they plan on making ownership of a smart phone as a mandatory condition for providing insurance, which I question the legality of, they simply can't make this obligatory.

    Consenting to being tracked at all times for the benefit of an insurance company? Yeah, go fuck yourselves.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  4. Re:employees? by jratcliffe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why wouldn't a company want to be able to assess the quality of its contractors, and decide if a complaint was valid or not? If you work for an outsourced call center company, and the company gets a call saying "I just spoke to CSR Fermion, and he was unhelpful and swore at me," if I'm the company, I'd want to know if the complaint was legit, rather than just having a policy of "drop anyone who gets a complaint."

    The customer is not always right (or sane).