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

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.

Comments

Re:Tracking drivers doesn't seem progressive

[Hylandr]

No this doesn't work as intended.

Progressive penalizes you for what's called a 'Hard stop' which is 7 Miles per hour of deceleration per second. Living in Austin Texas at the time taught me a few things to avoid the penalty.

- Run most if not all stop signs in parking lots,
- Not give any shits about yellow lights
- Run some red lights if the yellow was too short.
- Switch lanes rapidly to avoid cars slowing down for *anything*
- Increased my anger at other drivers for forcing me to hard stop, ( eg: playing it safe and avoiding a head on as someone gets into the wrong lane )

I had to effectively dive my vehicle like a golf cart to avoid the hits to my discount which translated into poorer driving habits that have persisted long after we switched insurance companies.

I am not alone in this either. You can spot a progressive driver a mile away.

Also a good write-up by a blogger here:

https://blog.joemanna.com/prog...