Progressive Insurance To Electronically Monitor Driving
Big brother may be here in the form of Progressive Insurance. The company wants to use an electronic device to monitor your driving and determine what kind of insurance risk you are.
Have you heard about the telematics? No, they aren’t new characters in the Transporter films. Instead, they are devices that would make any fan of tyranny a happy person indeed. They are electronic devices that are put in your car to monitor your driving abilities and habits.
Progressive Insurance is trying to persuade drivers in Missouri to install telematics in their cars. Progressive will even offer a 10 percent discount on premiums to those that do. The catch? Your rates could go way up or down depending on how you drive. The company will analyze the data to determine if you drive like Kyle Busch in NASCAR or Grandma Betty in her 1957 Skylark.
So, how do these telematic devices work? They plug into a diagnostic port in your car used by mechanics. The telematic is then secured [it is about the size of larger cell phone]. It then records the time of day, mileage and measures your speed. It can derive how fast you speed up and slow down from the diagnostic system as well as doing simple math calculations. The information is then uploaded to insurers through cell phone towers.
As you can imagine, the telematic certainly does away with any quaint notion like privacy. Progressive doesn’t even try to fake like it gives a hoot about privacy. The data is collected and assigned to your name and policy number. It is then analyzed individually through computer programs to determine what you’ve been doing. For instance, your rates will go up if you are found to be driving after midnight! Talk about big brother!
In truth, Progressive Insurance is not the only company trying these devices. GMAC and Travelers are known to run similar programs. Progressive is just the company that seems to have designs on rolling the program out across the country. In these days of not big government, but huge government, that should scare you silly.