How do you feel about having BIG BROTHER riding with you?

[techristian]

Auto insurance companies here in Canada and the US are offering reduced insurance rates if you plug in an ODB like interface (likely with GPS also) under the dash of your car. Basically it is like having your insurance agent sitting in the seat next to you while you drive, recording, speeding, acceleration and driving habits. My insurance company told me that I could save up to $500 a year by using it, but I'm not interested in having every instant of my driving scrutinized and recorded.

 

I wonder how you all think about this. Will this ever become mandatory?

 

Dan

[sventvkg]

They are gonna try. Good luck in your country. In mine we have the Bill Of Rights that is supposed to prevent this type of privacy invasion so it will be fought vigorously. I will melt it out of my car by any means necessary if they try it here.

[Beck]

I won't even buy a car new enough to have GPS or OnStar, or any other crap like that. No thanks!

 

Good thing I like classic cars, which means old cars to some. I'll never allow any devices in my cars that can monitor in such a way. But you know we rebel souls are a dying breed. Things that seem so outrageous and invasive now will be accepted as no big deal by the masses eventually. You'll have toilet cam to make sure you

[Vito Corleone]

 

They are gonna try. Good luck in your country. In mine we have the Bill Of Rights that is supposed to prevent this type of privacy invasion so it will be fought vigorously. I will melt it out of my car by any means necessary if they try it here.

 

 

I don't think the Bill of Rights covers things like private insurance companies offering discounts if you use a particular system.

[Bookumdano2]

I don't care if they have gizmos monitoring the way I drive. I'm a great driver. When I drive.

 

The city put some sort of smart sprinker timers in my yard a few years ago so that THEY could decide when my yard needed watering. That worked out okay. My grass and I have nothing to hide.

 

If one buys a new Google car that self-drives, does Google have to pay the insurance bill? Seems only fair. They're doing the driving.

 

I think there are a couple of missle drones patrolling over my house. If the guy controlling them from Fargo accidently clicks the fire button and destroys my house, is that covered under the government's Geico collision policy? Does Geico put a gizmo in the drone to see how the Fargo guy is doing with his drone flying?

 

Do you suppose I should move?

[crisis]

Rule 1. Don

[Huh?]

The swine peeg dogs can kees my ass-a-hol-a. No {censored}ing GPS in my car. Tell you what, I already only put in the GPS when I need it and these guys will find anyway they can to {censored} you so yeah, no thanks {censored} off with your ODB or whatever the hell it is. And $500 a year. Please. $40 something a month for them to invade my privacy and eventually use that thing against me. Nah, like I said ...pass.

 

Okay.......so what's this now, about the chick olympic beach volley ball players in the UK having to wear one piece body suits? This is an OUTRAGE!!!

[sventvkg]

I don't think the Bill of Rights covers things like private insurance companies offering discounts if you use a particular system.

 

Obviously....

[philbo]

 

The swine peeg dogs can kees my ass-a-hol-a. No {censored}ing GPS in my car. Tell you what, I already only put in the GPS when I need it and these guys will find anyway they can to {censored} you so yeah, no thanks {censored} off with your ODB or whatever the hell it is. And $500 a year. Please. $40 something a month for them to invade my privacy and eventually use that thing against me. Nah, like I said ...pass. Okay.......so what's this now, about the chick olympic beach volley ball players in the UK having to wear one piece body suits? This is an OUTRAGE!!!

 

 

If your car is less than 6 or 7 years old, it already has a device similar to an aircraft 'black box'. It automatically logs steering, brake and throttle positions; speed, acceleration on 3 axes, which seats have passengers, the RPM of each wheel, and probably other stuff. The only thing missing is auto-upload to the insurance and/or police... But if you get into an accident, in can and will be read out and used as evidence.

[Vito Corleone]

Obviously....

 

So you know it's not an invasion of your rights for them to do this, but you just wanna be paranoid about it for the fun of it?

 

Cool.

[Jorge7]

I think iPhones and other "smart" phones already have tracking built in that can measure velocity accurately by using the Doppler effect. I don't know much about it as I still have a "stupid" phone, but it seems to me the hardware is already in place for many people. Is there a way to selectively turn that "feature" off?

[mindido]

philbo,

 

 

If your car is less than 6 or 7 years old, it already has a device similar to an aircraft 'black box'. It automatically logs steering, brake and throttle positions; speed, acceleration on 3 axes, which seats have passengers, the RPM of each wheel, and probably other stuff. The only thing missing is auto-upload to the insurance and/or police... But if you get into an accident, in can and will be read out and used as evidence.

 

 

Can you provide some info on that box? Is there a hard drive storing the data? Flashdrive?

[MrKnobs]

 

Auto insurance companies here in Canada and the US are offering reduced insurance rates if you plug in an ODB like interface (likely with GPS also) under the dash of your car. Basically it is like having your insurance agent sitting in the seat next to you while you drive, recording, speeding, acceleration and driving habits. My insurance company told me that I could save up to $500 a year by using it, but I'm not interested in having every instant of my driving scrutinized and recorded. I wonder how you all think about this. Will this ever become mandatory? Dan

 

 

Yeah, if we don't rise up and stop it.

 

I sat in a FHWA meeting a couple of years ago where the presenter showed us a video capture from an overhead freeway cam with all the hybrid cars highlighted. Turns out that raising gas taxes is off the table, as is charging trucks for the actual amount of damage they do to the roadways. So the plan was (and I think still is) to first increase registration fees for hybrids (they incur congestion costs but pay little gas tax) and then to work toward collecting data from all vehicles as to distances driven and on what road. The data would then be collected by pylons and gas stations and you'd get a bill for miles driven. There would be weights on the charges (e.g. more cost per mile for driving congested roads during congested times, etc).

 

The idea would be you pay for what you use, with some incentive thrown in to keep you off the most congested roads if you have a choice.

 

That would require a GPS unit in every car, which is already in the works. The pylon system connecting to GPS and OnStar has been under test in four major US cities for about two years now.

 

The guy who presented the OnStar part of the presentation showed how they were using them to find potholes. They'd ping the onboard vehicle system and ask for vertical accelleration data from the axles. If enough cars reported a sharp acceleration up or down at the same spot, the area would be scheduled for maintenance. The presenter also showed that control of the vehicle could be taken over remotely, and that a pilot test had been conducted in Japan to slow traffic on a dangerous mountain road. Only about 15% of the vehicles there had OnStar at that time, but it was enough to slow traffic in general.

 

The first question that was asked after the presentation was whether the police had shown interest in this system. The presenter replied, "There's no official involvement on their part but they're very interested."

 

This was a closed door planning meeting two years ago at my Institute. I'm sure a lot more progress has been made since then.

 

Terry D.

[sventvkg]

 

So you know it's not an invasion of your rights for them to do this, but you just wanna be paranoid about it for the fun of it? Cool.

 

 

Uh, it IS an an invasion of my privacy if they do it without telling me. If they tell me, obviously i'm not going to get insurance from them.

[TimOBrien]

Get used to it. With all cars containing computers its only a matter of time before they are all networked.

You won't be ABLE to speed or run red lights.

Privacy won't enter into it as the 'common good and safety' will override those concerns.

(your moving down a public street has no expectation of privacy anyway...)

[electrochrisso]

Why worry guys, it's all over red rover on 121212.

[Geoff Grace]

Here's the thing about insurance companies: unlike other business models, customer satisfaction actually equals lost profits.

 

Think about it. They get your money up front without having provided any service. In the beginning, all they have to do is issue you a piece of paper that says you're insured; and in return, you pay them a monthly premium. Now that's a very profitable exchange for the company!

 

But if something happens, and you need them to pay for a new car, or an operation, or something else they're supposed to cover, then they essentially have to refund at least part of the money you paid them to begin with

[deanmass]

I hate insurance companies. I am really reaching the point where either living in the city and not having a car or having a beater and renting when I need something good is making sense.

 

And why make a dick comment re:Canada of all countries? The way we are going, we can't agree to rise up to bake bread, let alone stop the insurance lobby. Canada shows WAY more common sense and concern for citizens rights lately than our cluster fox of a congress. Our government is pwnd by corporations now. The US is in deep {censored} because we are all so polarized and making decisions based on fear rather than fact. A little car box is way down my list of worriesome things.

[techristian]

I really didn't want to get this too political. I was really more concerned with how many of you thought that it was worth $500 a year to give up a bit of privacy. The thought about mandatory enforcement came to me at the end. As I said, $500 isn't enough for me. Thanks MrKnobs !! That was a very enlightening post of yours. That sounded more like our METERED HYDRO now. (paying less if you cook your meal at 4 am)

 

 

Here's the thing about insurance companies: unlike other business models, customer satisfaction actually equals lost profits.   But if something happens, and you need them to pay for a new car, or an operation, or something else they're supposed to cover, then they essentially have to refund at least part of the money you paid them to begin with