Do You Use a Driving Monitor?
 

To save on auto Insurance, this option to lower my rate and save was
offered to me to get a discount on my auto insurance.

It's a app that tracks your driving habits.

Anyone have one?

I don't have one and don't want one. But, just curious, how much is the discount, and, can it increase your rate?

Yes I do, have for a year. Really reduces car insurance. I don't drive very much anymore, maybe a thousand miles a year and I don't drive at night. Paid about $ 550 for 12 months of coverage 300/100/100.

Big Brother already knows everything about us including driver statistics gleaned from already installed software & monitors built into new cars. So for now you may have a choice, but once we've all purchased these newer vehicles they'll have all the info they need to raise and lower your rates as they see fit. This isn't tin foil hat conspiracy theories, it's already happening and was exposed in a recent article about this. Should be able to Google it.

I wouldn't be interested at this time. I was basically required to use one when I initially signed up with this insurance company (or possibly when I added a new vehicle) but I would not choose to have one full-time.

I find it difficult to believe that auto insurance companies even care how people drive. Simple math will tell you that these companies must be making a killing selling auto insurance to retirees. Most companies will not even cover a driver for more than $250K, so their overall risk is extremely low, while collecting tens of millions in premiums from Villagers alone.

The big problem is these devices make mistakes that ding your rating. Then your rate goes up (a lot).
Things like...
Excessive speed in a school zone, such as 40 in a 20; but the school zone is not in effect at that time.
Hard braking; but you avoided an accident as a result = reckless bad behavior.
Speeding in a round about; but you are not in a roundabout you are in the bypass.
Going over 75 at any time.
You have no control over how a valet or mechanic is driving your car.
Following the direction of police at an emergency scene, or at road construction with alternating traffic in a single lane, thus driving the wrong way on a one way. [At a hazardous waste drop off, was directed the wrong way and the car alarmed loudly about that]
Roads change over time (speed limits, lanes, construction, one ways become two ways), and maps take a while to update; so every time you are doing the new "right thing" you are being flagged for dangerous driving.
Stopping on a limited access highway; even if there is an accident or heavy traffic.
Driving off road because the map doesn't have your new development's roads yet.

Surely none of these happen here LOL

Some good points here not to get one.

To hi-jacket my own post here a little, yesterday I sat down with my insurance people and to figure out ways to lower my premiums, (I drive a 9 yr old Highlander.)

The lady behind the desk said all those new safety features that come with
new cars, there's a big insurance discount on them.

I said well, if there's a accident with all the sensors, relay switches etc. that need to be adjusted, plus the body work, your discount just went out the window because
your insurance has to pay.

Everything went silent.

Nfw

Ford is the only company that doesn't sell it's information to insurance companies. All of the others do so they know how you're driving.

I did a quick check on this because, well, TOTV. It looks to me like this was true until very recently. Ford apparently now sells to lexnexis who makes it available to insurance companies.

We have them and are saving about $230/yr between the two cars. I'm at or close to 100 (perfect) on braking and phone distraction but "fair" on acceleration (because electric car) and speed (because of the hell that is I75). Cornering is always "needs improvement" because spirited corning is fun.

The ramp northbound onto the turnpike at 301 is a tough place. Uphill, on a corner, with a bridge shortly after the merge lane ends. It's nice to hit the merge area at 60-70mph, and the electric car does that with ease, but I get dinged there every single time for excessive acceleration. Sure guys, just try to accelerate slowly there and see how it goes for you! Grrrrr!

Roundabouts ding me for cornering all of the time.

I kinda resent it but I kinda like the idea of monitoring driver behavior too. So many lunatics on the roads these days.

On my thing you can pull up your drives on your phone and see where your violations occurred. I think it makes you a safer driver, just knowing something is monitoring you and getting feedback on where "stuff happened" on your drives.

Joe

We have State Farm’s version and it saves us a couple hundred dollars a year on our 5 year old truck. I think we are pretty safe drivers but it still dings us here and there but a couple hundred dollars is still better in my pocket than theirs.

Have had 2 companies offer them and I did both. 1 hooked up to the car (better option) and the other ran on our iPhones (very bad)..

Drawbacks:
Plugged into your car:
* if you brake hard for a bird, some idiot turning from the wrong lane in a roundabout, and you put on your brakes hard, you get dinged.
* if you give it gas to get around a slow driver, you get dinged

The positives:
* actual mileage used
* didn’t care or knew if your passenger was on the phone (more on this later)

App on your iPhone:
Don’t do this, the app is too dumb and I told them up front (more on this);

No positives!
Drawbacks:
* the app is always on, the root of all problems
* the app is stupid, if you and your spouse is in the same vehicle, it can’t differentiate who is driving (root of all problems)
* every time you drive, ride in a friends car, ride as a passenger, it counts the mileage driven. So if you and your wife both ride in the car you just drove 2x miles. Every time you take your golf cart somewhere, you are adding miles driven in your car.
* say you and your wife are in the car together and your wife is the passenger and she answers her phone, dinged! Can’t talk and drive, but she isn’t driving. The app doesn’t know that.
* are are riding in a friends car and you get on the phone, dinged! Can’t drive and talk on the phone, but you are a passenger in somebody else’s car, app doesn’t know this.
* same as above but you are in your golf cart, dinged! The app doesn’t know or can’t tell you are in a golf cart.
* while a passenger in a friends car, he better be a good driver because every brake slam, speeding, it goes against you!!

So I tried to explain all of these problems of the app to the insurance company. They agreed to every problem, so hear is what they told me I had to do EVERY day:
Both my wife and I had to log into the app each night and tell it: I was a passenger, I was in a golf cart, I was in a friends car, etc.. I’m not going to do this. So I let it go. I had triple the miles, I had my golf cart driving on the golf course go against our driving, we were driving while using or talking on the phone while driving, etc..

I used to be a cop (deputy sheriff) and still drive like one so no discount for me. Rates would probably double. :-)

Not true
 

I have a 2024 Jeep grand Cherokee. My rates went up because of all the technology in my car. And I don’t have the highest package. No a/c seats/ side windows don’t electronically fold.

We have it for USAA and save 30% every 6 months on our rate.

One other fallacy is that you "save" anything. They raise the rates and then give some back.

Allstate did that with their "safe driver discount". You paid a higher rate with Allstate assuming you would have a claim. If you went claim free that year you got a rebate.
Previously the rate assumed you were a good driver and got the lower rate initially. If you had a claim, then next year your rate went up.
Sounds like the same thing? Nope. In the year you had the claim you are already paying the higher rate. They got more money from the customers and could advertise the program like it was giving you extra money.
Made Allstate millions.

Had one. It drained the batteries in our cell phones, and came up with crazy reports. It had me making sudden stops and starts when I forgot to disarm it while on the golf course. It had my wife leaving from somewhere about a mile from our house and going to places far from where she went. It also used a lot of our cellular data. Completely inaccurate and thoroughly useless. Besides, they buy the same information from Lexis Nexus, which buys it from the car manufacturers who snoop on our every move through the data systems in the cars we drive.

No desire to be Big Brothered. Now that I know new cars are, it makes me want to keep my 21 yr old car even longer!

That sounds different than ours..we have a little box on the windshield that captures the data. I wouldn’t like the phone app either.

Joe

All the more reason to buy/keep older cars and fix them up! Big brother knows too much, and like the kids these days, people are too willing to give up personal privacy for something. Besides, with older cars you can drop collision insurance because you won't get much for an old car anyway and the insurance will total it anyway!!!! Insurance rates get a lot cheaper without collision insurance!

I used the type that plugs into your car's ODB port. It was required for a time period, which I think was 6 months. At that time, I was deemed a safe driver and no longer required to use the device. I then received a discount which I've maintained for years, so it was worth it. Agree that it was a pain in that hard breaking to avoid an accident or changing lanes quickly because an emergency vehicle was on your tail, would ding you. But you were allowed a reasonable number of offenses w/o being deemed an unsafe driver. It was a huge relief when the 6 month period was over and I could resume my normal driving, which would be considered unsafe by the device, yet I've never been in an accident.

I have one on the windshield.
 

I have a heavy foot while driving and have an electric car, so my app says I need improvement on speed and acceleration. Despite this valid feedback, I saved over $143 over my last 6 month bill with State Farm. If I can save almost $300 a year, it's a good deal for me and I don't intend to change my driving habits. The phone app does not record golf cart trips, only auto trips.

HELL NO!! we have enough government intrusion in our life!

No for me, I already have Google and Alexa watching me .....that's enough !

No. I don’t need a mommy looking over me.:highfive:

Didn’t know you could buy vehicle nowadays without A/C?

Safe pilot
 

Yes , from usaa auto insurance. Tracks everything from your phone . 30 % discount for a good score .

30 % discount
 

30% discount. For not handling your phone while driving.
No harsh breaking . Download an app if your insurance carrier offers it .

Police radar
 

Are all the police who monitor speeders going away ? The insurance companies only track your phone usage and harsh breaking to receive a discount .

Our grandson has one in UK.
17 when purchased car, now 18 years old, first car, full insurance rate is prohibitive.
Saves him a lot of money, and he has to drive to the speed limit, which gives his parents and us a little reassurance that he is driving reasonable, and not racing his mates.
Gets a monthly report of transgressions, only one red one last month.
Three this year, which, if stays the average over the year, is well inside the limit allowed.

I think they meant A/C seats, perforated leather seats that cool you.

Writer is questioning technology that monitors your driving habits. Technology you described is a concern to the insurance company since the car costs a lot more to repair these days. Some headlight assemblies cost over 3K to replace plus labor and it only takes a small impact to damage them. That is the tip of the iceberg

Hate to say it, but this is big business intrusion and is going to get a lot worse.

NOPE...NOPE...and........NOPE!!!!!!

Same here, I like what little privacy is left.

And you don’t spend $100,000 on a car with good pickup to drive it like a hearse…

I used a plug-in to monitor my driving to get a break on insurance. I could go online to see how I was doing. The brake usage events were understandable but people with a heavy foot on the accelerator would be in for a surprise. Normal driving for them would be interpreted as non-stop dangerous events. I don't have a heavy foot but my savings were not remarkable.

We have one with USAA for the discount. We are both pretty good drivers and your car already knows what you are doing and some report to your insurance company. The only think that I don’t like is that it is not very accurate. It records phone handling/use even when you do not do that. If your phone is in your pocket like mine is and you move your leg to break it thinks you are using your phone! So you need to keep it on a seat or cup holder. Also harsh breaking reporting is crazy inaccurate! As log as I get a decent discount of 10%++ I will continue to allow it. Oh as far as I know it does not track your speed vs the speed limit. Good thing LOL

We have Allstate insurance and installed the Allstate app on our phones. Our experience has been very good.
Allstate does not increase your rate for "violations", it only decreases it for "safe driving". What are violations? Speed greater than 80 MPH, sudden braking, and driving at higher risks times of the day. It also detects phone use while driving, but it doesn't count as a violation. We can go into the app and edit a completed trip to fix some possible scenarios: 1) I was a passenger, not a driver; 2) on a train, boat, airplane, etc. and not driving. Our discount has been significant compared to previous insurers. It's made us much more aware of how we're driving, and even if we didn't get a discount, that alone is a big benefit. We were initially concerned that the app would be a data hog, but that hasn't materialized.
Why are so many people afraid that a bunch of computers know where they go and how they drive? It's not info that's readily accessible by humans, and even if it was, who cares? I have nothing to hide about where and when I go. I think some people don't understand how the data collection systems work, and they're therefore afraid because the systems are mysterious and unknown.