In-Drive auto insurance device

[Alan]

I wish I would have saved the U.K. paper as I brought it home to show it DW.

Having raised two daughters, who were not the best teenage drivers, I understand your comment about your son. I guess I am one of those damn Yankees that likes his privacy and maybe that's why I'm so against the monitoring device.

Don't worry about the newspaper, there are plenty it could have been.

On a thread hi-jack, I listened to a good interview recently on a Samsung Smart TV that listens to folks in the room talking to better recognize voices for the voice activated commands. However, it also shares the information with 3rd parties, advertisers I assume. When asked, the person being interviewed said that he has the voice control turned off, not because he was concerned over privacy, but that he has the TV connected through external speakers and while watching an episode of Star Trek the TV suddenly changed channel.

Samsung's Smart TV 'surveillance' prompts FTC complaint | PCWorld

 

[harley]

I just got back from building a Faraday cage around my car. It's better if I can't use the phone while driving, and I have my iPod for a music source. Also installed a rotating license plate as per my old "Poor Man's James Bond". All my data are belong to me.

 

[Texas Proud]

I don't doubt you at all about reading the article in one of the newspapers, like here many of them like sensational headlines to sell papers, but we know and speak to lots of family and friends and I listen to a BBC podcast twice a week on all these personal finance issues including finding the best deals in car insurance etc. I'd never heard of what you say and couldn't find a link while Googling. With less than 1% of drivers using the devices and a LOT of insurance companies to chose from I think it will be some time before those devices transform from a carrot to a stick when it comes to pricing.

Having one of those devices is not something I would consider for myself, but if they had been an option when my son was 17 to cut the price by 20% on the car he drove then I think I would have gone for it.

But the reality is that my sons car got a whopping 1% drop so far... he drives to school in rush hour... and even drives home in rush hour since he goes to the gym.... his trip is a whopping 1.8 miles each way.... so I thought we would get a big discount... Nope, I would not recommend doing this with the little amount of money you will save....

 

[frank]

+1 We recently moved from Chicago suburb to rural Iowa. I was shocked at how much higher the insurance is in Iowa.

how big of a difference was there?

 

[Alan]

But the reality is that my sons car got a whopping 1% drop so far... he drives to school in rush hour... and even drives home in rush hour since he goes to the gym.... his trip is a whopping 1.8 miles each way.... so I thought we would get a big discount... Nope, I would not recommend doing this with the little amount of money you will save....

I agree, not worth it.

 

[Koolau]

So many "old sayings" come to mind when privacy discussions come up. "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you." is a personal favorite, but my tag line is what I live by. YMMV

 

[Walt34]

It would be interesting to see a "life-years saved per $" calculation for annual vehicle inspections. I've got to think the payback is very poor compared to other potential uses of that money (seat belt enforcement, speed enforcement, drunk driving enforcement, etc.)

No argument there. Apparently in Ohio they have state-run inspections done by state employees? They are in MD where we used to live but those were for emissions only, at least then and if you picked a time outside of rush hours it took ~10 minutes. In WV local service/repair shops do the safety inspections, a light one for wipers, lights, brake pad wear, tire tread, windows intact, etc. It takes about 15 minutes and they charge ~$12 for it.

MD does have a rigorous inspection for used cars changing owners outside of a family. Anything that can pass a MD used car inspection is worth at least $2k. This one gets into steering rod play, wheel bearing play, etc - more at the level of a safety inspection done at the aviation level and takes about an hour. I think it is a good inspection and wish more states would do it, that keeps the unsafe "clunkers" from being passed around. Those inspections are also done at local service/repair shops. The penalties for "passing" an unqualified vehicle or failing to pass a qualified vehicle to sell service/parts are severe. In addition to civil fines the owner of the shop can find himself in jail on theft charges if they falsify findings to sell parts or services not needed.

 

[harley]

I always found the MD used car inspection to just be a scam to create business for the car repair shops. I tried twice to sell perfectly good cars to a friend's son, but the MD inspection would have required us to pay thousands of dollars in truly unnecessary repair in order to sell him the car for about $1K. These were both cars that ran well, passed VA inspections easily, had no serious issues other than being older. And were in much better shape than a lot of what is on the roads in MD every day. Scam, nothing more.