Nerd Pride Radio

Some auto insurance companies offer a "safe driver" discount if you allow them to put a monitoring device in your vehicle that lets them observe how safe you are when you drive. I've always been leery of this.

I feel like all of this black box data is so insurance companies can use it to try to avoid paying out on claims. I feel like it will screw over their customers, even though I have no evidence one way or another. I know that some states allow that if you are determined to be partly at fault, then insurance companies can reduce your payout by the amount of fault attributed to you. I know data is data, but I imagine that insurance companies will have experts and lawyers backing their interpretation way better than anything the average customer can afford. But again, I know nothing for sure.

Also, I have a friend who's insurance company tracks her driving habits by an app on her phone. She says she can't disable it, which means it is still tracking "her" driving habits when she is riding with someone else. If she's a passenger and on her phone, then does her insurer think she's checking Facebook constantly while driving? I feel like she has to be misunderstanding something, but then how could the insurer know your actual driving habits if you're allowed to just turn the app off at will?

And also, I know they monitor driving speed. Two and a half years ago, Nebraska raised the speed limit on most rural highways from 60 to 65. But even after all this time, Google Maps and Apple Maps and my Garmin GPS with all the latest updates ALL still list the speed limit on all of these roads as 60. So have all these insurance companies just been thinking that all of their Nebraska customers speed all the time?

On the other hand, I read somewhere that people with trackers tend to get in significantly fewer accidents. Which makes sense.

And I hear a voice in my head saying, "But if you really ARE a safe driver, them you've got nothing to fear, right? The facts are on your side." But I don't actually believe that.

Yeah, I'm not a fan, and I'm not planning on using any app like that, even though I am usually a pretty safe driver (in my opinion), for many of the reasons you outlined. It's definitely got a Big Brother type feel about it. My oldest child uses it so he can get a discount on his auto insurance. When he went with us on our family vacation over the summer, where I was doing all of the driving, it still tracked all of the time he was in a car moving around, and he had to mark each trip that he was a passenger rather than the driver.

Everything you’re saying is correct. They’ve been doing these in rental and commercial trucks for years. On the whole, they are almost never beneficial for you, and even if you realize a slight savings (remember their rates can fluctuate depending on your driving) it’s not offset by the time, effort and mistakes you’ll make.

They also collect the data to sell to third parties in most states. So is even grosser than you think.

Kyle wrote: ↑Sun Oct 17, 2021 8:46 am They also collect the data to sell to third parties in most states. So is even grosser than you think.

I hadn't thought about that but it's obvious in hindsight.

Whenever companies have sole possession of data, they use it when it's to their advantage and conveniently forget about it when it's not. I doubt they ever use they data they collect to increase payouts.

My daughter uses one of these apps and I would never want it touching my own life but it's different for her. The more intrusive apps that know where she's located the better, frankly, and if she can thereby cajole or trick them into approving her driving, good. Good. Google doesn't think cajole is a word we're just fighting and fighting over it. Damn phone can't spell.