What do you think about State Farm's new In-Drive program?

[98ExAccordwv]

It's definitely an interesting concept. I'd want to know more about what type of data they are going to take and how they are going to use it to determine if I'm being a safe driver or not. Like are they going to check to see if you use your turn signals, or just monitor how quickly you accelerate and decelerate and then your cruising speeds. And also is it going to have a location device built in or just data logging?

All-in-all it could be a great program. I'd just need to read the fine print before making a decision.

 

[JMillerUA6]

Progressive is doing the same thing with their Snapshot program....http://www.progressive.com/auto/snapshot-discount.aspx

And I'll pass....I'd rather pay 10% more and be able to drive how I want, when I want and keep my privacy.

 

[LeBirdNest]

agreed. i have progressive and they are pretty good. i have a gazzillion tickets from when i was stupid and for me and my wife's full coverage insurance its only 90 bucks a month.

- what about that accident program "i forgot what insurance company" but if you get in a wreck and its not your fault, they will give you a model year newer with 15k miles less on the odo? i might look into that one. i have a 98 so i can wreck my car three times until i dont have a 6th gen anymore.

 

[cpozzuolo]

call your agent and tell him/her you are taking the dummiestrafficschool.com course online.. its $16.95 and you get 10% off for 3 years... just completed it. have myself and my wife on the policy and my agent told me that if each of us takes the course we get 10% off each individual that took the course...

 

[slowrider87]

In CA, most people have decided that other people should not be able to switch lanes for some reason. The problem is, people have to switch lanes so everyone has to cut each other off and drive unsafely, even if you are a safe driver other wise, just to get where you need to go.


I do wonder what happens if you are an average commuter in a densely populated area. Driving in my town, I am a great driver. Driving in Oakland or Berkeley, depending on the time of day, I have to drive like an asshole to get around everyone else driving like an asshole. I wonder if you suffer, just because where you live.

it's extremely similar to that here in the DMV particularly within a 20 mile radius of DC itself. i can't count how many times I've been driving down the interstate and all of a sudden for seemingly no reason all 4 lanes in my direction lock up, requiring any driver safe or not to slam the brakes hard or veer out of the way. also if monitoring your speed and comparing it to the gps coordinates youre at is one of its functions (which i would bet money on this device having that ability) then no thanks. Safe drivers drive with the flow of traffic, and here when traffic is flowing well the average speed/pace is about 10-15 over on the highways. residential is usually right on. but everyone books it down the highways here, if you're doing the speed limit you're almost more likely to cause an accident or get pulled over for "impeding the flow of traffic".

in my book...

Theory=Win
Actuality=Fail

 

[talontsiawd]

Safe drivers drive with the flow of traffic, and here when traffic is flowing well the average speed/pace is about 10-15 over on the highways. residential is usually right on. but everyone books it down the highways here, if you're doing the speed limit you're almost more likely to cause an accident or get pulled over for "impeding the flow of traffic".

in my book...

Theory=Win
Actuality=Fail

Exactly. My GF drives the speed limit and never above. I try to tell her that it can be extremely unsafe but she refuses to believe me. She has never been in nor caused and accident but I would feel so much safer if she went with the slower side of traffic (atleast 10 MPH over during certain times of the day).



On another note, I just read an updated version of the private policy of a service I use. It is very upfront so I know exactly what they are doing. They won't sell my personal information but they will now sell information about my activities through their service. Basically, they will sell the data with no name, email or other personal info that can be identifiable to me. When I signed up, this was not the case. So, even if they truly are willing to keep your data internal now, they may see an opportunity to change their private policy later. That means you would have to switch policies as soon as that happened. I am going to guess that they may sell your information, even if you do switch, and find some legal loophole to do so. That's fine for this particular service, car insurance, not so much for me personally.

 

[ryan s]

the ironic part about "anonymized" data is that people can still trace it backwards. theres plenty of research on that and how they can take your location, birthday, or 2-3 pieces of seemingly random info and trace it back to you. like, first name and birth date would be pretty accurate. or, area plus gender plus a certain preference can lead to your address.

just say no to personal data sharing, even if its claimed to be perfectly anonymous and pooled.

 

[talontsiawd]

the ironic part about "anonymized" data is that people can still trace it backwards. theres plenty of research on that and how they can take your location, birthday, or 2-3 pieces of seemingly random info and trace it back to you. like, first name and birth date would be pretty accurate. or, area plus gender plus a certain preference can lead to your address.

just say no to personal data sharing, even if its claimed to be perfectly anonymous and pooled.

I don't want to claim I am aware of this in any detail but I never put my information totally correctly when I do not see how it has a benefit to myself. On a forum, I usually put my my real location, birthday, etc, but on a consumer site that I do not use for professional purposes, I tend to use a different birthday, change up my phone slightly, etc. I figure if there is no benefit for me, and it is required, I know it is for the sake of data logging and will likely be shared. I don't know if that helps me but it's pretty hard to use services without giving out some sort of info in required fields.



One point I would like to make though is once someone has your info, it gets all over. For the last year, I have been getting calls from services providing "educational opportunities". It is under someone else's name and they ask for her every time but this is 1-2 call a week for the last year or so and they haven't stopped. Last time this happened to me, it took almost 4 years for people to stop actively calling me. Who knows what they are doing with that information outside of this.

 

[gokblok]

I don't want to claim I am aware of this in any detail but I never put my information totally correctly when I do not see how it has a benefit to myself. On a forum, I usually put my my real location, birthday, etc, but on a consumer site that I do not use for professional purposes, I tend to use a different birthday, change up my phone slightly, etc. I figure if there is no benefit for me, and it is required, I know it is for the sake of data logging and will likely be shared. I don't know if that helps me but it's pretty hard to use services without giving out some sort of info in required fields.



One point I would like to make though is once someone has your info, it gets all over. For the last year, I have been getting calls from services providing "educational opportunities". It is under someone else's name and they ask for her every time but this is 1-2 call a week for the last year or so and they haven't stopped. Last time this happened to me, it took almost 4 years for people to stop actively calling me. Who knows what they are doing with that information outside of this.

I'm exactly the same way. I don't remember what it was for, but I registered for somethiing under a totally made-up name. I used my actual street address, because it was something that had to be shipped, and gave them an email address I use specifically for sign-ups and potential junk. That was at least 04--I STILL get junk mail/email for Josh Rashant. Lol. Including things from tech colleges, "credit offers", even something from a dentist's office.

Suffice it to say, I don't want somebody with the ability to track my driving, be it habits, location, or gas-station preference.