NEWS: Big Brother Wants to Watch You Drive

GEEK: Big Brother Wants to Watch You Drive

Would you like a break on your insurance payments? If so, would you want to have your agent is in the car with you at all times? Insurance companies and volunteers have been testing a device that monitors driving habits.

This program will expand to thousands of customers soon and those customers will get up to a 25% discount. The insurance company claims that it will only use the device for good and not for evil, by discounting good customers' insurance and ignoring those customers with "risky driving habits." This device will not monitor where drivers go and it can't be removed without making a record of it. It seems some are concerned about the future potential of this program and about the welfare of those who don't wish to participate.

This actually sounds like quite a good idea, a blackbox for cars. Don't truckers already have something similar to this that they are obligated to use to make sure they don't drive for more than a certain amount of time.

I guess there is a certain question of invasion of privacy but if someone signs up for it then they are doing it of their own free will, if it ends up people having to do it simply to get insurance, oh well. Surely it would force people to drive more safely?

Its hardly an invasion. As long as it's a choice, i dont see how any evil can come from it.
Shit, even if it was obligatory what do i care if someone wants to rate my driving?

I think the issue is that because you have to have insurance to drive and with the slow job market and the explosive growth in the size of metropolitan areas, living without a car becomes more and more difficult.

Thus, if the insurance companies all get into bed with each other and all of them say "You have to have this box or you'll face heavy penalties on your rates", then you're stuck.

Hmmm... I like that they ignore risky behavior. That makes it a bit less "big brother", especially since it's your choice.

It truly is an incentive to drive safely. I wouldn't mind a reward for not driving like a jackass.

Hey... if it would lower my car insurance, I'd be all for it. I think it would be a good motivation for people to drive better if they were constantly being monitored.

Maybe it would also reduce crime if the government installed a camera in every room of your house. I'd feel a lot safer.

Wouldn't you?

Just another creeping invasion of people's privacy.

Sure, they'll ignore speeding...until you get the notice you're being cancelled because you lent your car to your kid brother, who did 115 in a 55 Saturday night.

Now, you have to prove you weren't driving that night and don't deserve to have your insurance jacked, or dropped. You're guilty until proven innocent.

Don't fall for it, people. It's always "For your own safety", of course.

In the interest of full disclosure I had titled it "Price VS Privacy"...I think it might good as a voluntary thing but it has the potential for abuse. Would you accept cameras in your home for cheaper homeowners insurance? Of course people will behave better if they're constantly monitored but is that the way people should live...I however would love cheaper insurance. I dunno

edit: Isn't a clean driving record enough, we should let the police play this role.

[Edited on Sep 07, 2004 by Raoul_Duke]

...but this is voluntary, not some weird "1984" plot.

If I had one of these, NOBODY would drive my car except ME.

Hee hee. What's car insurance? *gets on bike and rides away*

don't they already do this with the photo enforced traffic lights? [not that I think it's right - in this case, the owner of the car is guilty until proven innocent]

I hope none of you actually think the insurance companies are going to "ignore bad behavior."

If you have the patience, my full thoughts on insurance companies can be found in this old journal entry.

In short, insurance is a product. But, unlike your orange juice or, um, car, you're required to buy it. Now, this product that you're required to buy wants to dictate the way you behave... using financial incentive as an excuse.

Saving money on something I shouldn't have to buy in the first place?

Besides, who gives a shit how I drive? What matters is if I crash. If you want to raise my rates after I crash, then so be it. But essentially raising them based on if I might crash? (I guarantee non-compliant drivers will get more and higher raise rates... more "incentive").

Fuck insurance companies. Right in the ear.

Red light cameras (like automated photo radar systems) are unconstitutional, in my opinion. They aren't as widespread - yet - in the US as they are in Europe.

Since the systems company gets a big slice of every ticket issued, the potential for abuse is huge. The systems are very attractive for munincipalities since they require little up-front money and no human staffer to operate it. The systems can issue dozens of citations an hour, far more than a human officer. Insurance companies love it, too because they get to jack your rates for speeding and running red lights.

IIRC studies have shown that red light cameras don't make streets safer because the number of accidents in the intersection drop slightly but the number of rear-end collisions just before the intersection rises more.

HAMILTON, BERMUDA (AP) - IceBox Technologies, based out of the Bermuda Islands, today released their newest automobile black-box spoofer, allowing millions of their customers to evade AllState Insurance's latest tactics to fight black-box spoofs.

"Our newest product, the StealthMaster, goes the StealthPro one better, in that it keeps your previous driving record intact, as well as altering your current driving record to lower your insurance payments", according to IceBox CEO Todd Bertram. "The StealthMaster is an all-in-one solution now for AllState, as well as GEICO, GMAC, State Farm, and all other major insurance companies."

AllState Insurance was relying on clues in a driver's old records to determine if there was any alteration of the black-box records.

Since the rapid adoption of the so-called black-box in 2006, a running war has been conducted between companies such as IceBox Technologies and automobile insurers, with new evasions and spoofs coming within days of a change to a company's black-box technology. Estimates for the usage of spoofs range from 4% of the driving population (from GEICO) to 95% of the population (from Thrifty Drivers LLC, a competitor of IceBox). The US government has estimated that 65% of drivers currently use or have used black-box spoofing technology in the past two years.

Black-box technologies, eight years after their widespread adoption, are still controversial, as illustrated by State Farm's latest attempt to remove spoofers from their customer base. The resulting bad publicity is blamed for their drop into near-bankruptcy and slide in stock price. Progressive Insurance, original creators of the black-box, have nearly doubled their customer base in the past two years, once a memo leaked to the press saying that they would use a 'see no evil, hear no evil' policy with regards to black-box spoofing.

IceBox's latest product is available via mail-order. No comment has yet been recieved from AllState Insurance about this latest product.

Dude, I would be fucked like Cartmans mom if one of those things were in my car. Like, woah.

Why does anyone think this would lower their insurance? All they have to do is jack up rates higher for people without the device, call that "standard," and then offer you a "discount" for having it in your car.

I don't mind the black box for resolving accident claims, but I don't want the insurance company monitoring how I drive and where I drive. If you don't want me to drive fast, build slower cars.