auto insurance tracking/spy discounts

[FtWorthAtheist]

I've tried a couple different auto insurance trackers like Progressive Snapshot to get discounts.  Some of them use a device which plugs into the car's OBD port.  Some use a phone app to track you.  Some use a wireless device that goes into your car.

I just got a horrendous rate increase from Progressive because their program used a phone app, and I carry my phone with me a lot when I am riding as a passenger in my domestic partner's car, so it was counting those trips.  My domestic partner is a very aggressive driver; I get whiplash riding with him in stop-and-go traffic because he accelerates as much as he can to weave in and around other people and prevent other people from getting in front of him, and then brakes to avoid slamming into the stopped car in front of him.  There's a way to tell the Progressive app that you were a passenger so it supposedly doesn't count those trips towards your driving ratings, but you have to go in and do that frequently and I was mostly forgetting to do it.  When I used a previous program that was only counting my driving, they rated me a B+ but with the Progressive app counting my domestic partner (and more of his driving than mine) it rated me an F.

So what I'm wondering is, can anyone recommend programs which use the OBD type trackers or the wireless type trackers so that it only counts the trips in my vehicle rather than the trips in either vehicle?  I am always the driver in my car and he is always the driver in his.  Generally I expect this type of insurance program to save me money if it is only counting my actual driving, because my car is driven very few miles and the number of miles driven is a large part of their tracking.

[Sibley]

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

[GilesMM]

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

Except when you do all three (brake hard, slam accelerator, swerve) every time you drive.

[nereo]

Progressive offers an OBD tracker. Why not request this instead of the app?

[Sibley]

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

Except when you do all three (brake hard, slam accelerator, swerve) every time you drive.

But it penalizes you, or at least it did, for each time. Maybe the penalty escalated the more often, I don't know. Based on my driving record I am objectively a safe driver. But per the data I don't look like a safe driver. I had a clear disconnect between what the insurance company's plug in thing thought vs real world results. I ditched the program and I told them why.

If you happen to drive in a way that the insurance companies like, then go ahead. I have a friend who gets quite a discount. However she's also had multiple accidents which were completely avoidable - if you did things like stomp on the gas or brakes, or swerved out of the way. Which she doesn't. The discount she gets doesn't completely compensate for the increased premium, so in the end she'd be better off changing her driving style.

[GilesMM]

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

Except when you do all three (brake hard, slam accelerator, swerve) every time you drive.

But it penalizes you, or at least it did, for each time. Maybe the penalty escalated the more often, I don't know. Based on my driving record I am objectively a safe driver. But per the data I don't look like a safe driver. I had a clear disconnect between what the insurance company's plug in thing thought vs real world results. I ditched the program and I told them why.

If you happen to drive in a way that the insurance companies like, then go ahead. I have a friend who gets quite a discount. However she's also had multiple accidents which were completely avoidable - if you did things like stomp on the gas or brakes, or swerved out of the way. Which she doesn't. The discount she gets doesn't completely compensate for the increased premium, so in the end she'd be better off changing her driving style.

I think the most significant thing they monitor is your phone usage while driving. This may be the biggest risk for most drivers today.

[NV Teacher]

I declined the discount that was offered if I would install a tracking app on my phone from the insurance company. 

[Tasse]

I think the most significant thing they monitor is your phone usage while driving. This may be the biggest risk for most drivers today.

I use USAA's app and this is the case. It tracks harsh braking, but my impression is that is the least-weighted category - the rest is phone handling and hands-free vs handheld phone calls.

I've been pretty diligent about telling it when I'm a passenger (and also it's easy to just claim you were a passenger on a trip where an infraction was recorded...) It's projecting a 30% discount when my policy renews, which is major since I live in a state with expensive insurance. My only complaint is that the discount doesn't apply until renewal, and I picked up the app at the same time as my previous renewal, so I'm still paying the old rate for 6 months.

[Telecaster]

I'm suspicious of these tracking apps.   Obviously, you are giving up some privacy to the insurance company in exchange for (hopefully) a discount.  That exchange might be worth it to some people.   But in the fine print, most or all of the insurance companies also share your data with third parties.     So it is a lot bigger exchange of privacy than most people realize.   In the event of an accident, it might be a good thing to have a neutral tracker record what happened.  But the tracker isn't neutral and it doesn't know the full story.   Insurance companies don't make money by paying claims, they make money by not paying claims.   I can see how incomplete data could be used against you.   

[secondcor521]

I think the most significant thing they monitor is your phone usage while driving. This may be the biggest risk for most drivers today.

I use USAA's app and this is the case. It tracks harsh braking, but my impression is that is the least-weighted category - the rest is phone handling and hands-free vs handheld phone calls.

I've been pretty diligent about telling it when I'm a passenger (and also it's easy to just claim you were a passenger on a trip where an infraction was recorded...) It's projecting a 30% discount when my policy renews, which is major since I live in a state with expensive insurance. My only complaint is that the discount doesn't apply until renewal, and I picked up the app at the same time as my previous renewal, so I'm still paying the old rate for 6 months.

I don't know what triggered it exactly, but I installed the USAA app and although they gave me the "won't get the discount until renewal", I made several changes to my auto policy and I think they gave me the safe driving app discount *before* my renewal.  It might be a glitch in their system, so you could maybe go in and make some innocuous changes to your policy (you can change them back the very next day if you really want to) and see if it triggers the discount for you.

On the harsh braking and swerving comments from another poster, I thought similarly - as long as you avoid the accident, that's all that matters, right?  On further thought, I realized that those situations usually meant I was taking on risk, and risk eventually statistically means more accidents.  So I would, in those scenarios, slow down much more in deer-prone areas, and give a lot more following distance to trash trucks, etc.

I personally don't think that hands free calling really is a risk even though USAA tracks it.  But the data says it does, so I am probably wrong.

[NotJen]

I’ve done this twice.  Both with Progressive. Once with the plug-in (a million years ago), and recently with the app.

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

But how many times do these things happen to you?  For me, maybe twice a year.  That basically has no impact on the score I get from the tracker.

I drive how the insurance companies like, and I’ve also never been in an accident.  It’s possible, but the ‘where’ part of my driving is also probably a factor.

I'm suspicious of these tracking apps.   Obviously, you are giving up some privacy to the insurance company in exchange for (hopefully) a discount.  That exchange might be worth it to some people.   But in the fine print, most or all of the insurance companies also share your data with third parties.     So it is a lot bigger exchange of privacy than most people realize.   In the event of an accident, it might be a good thing to have a neutral tracker record what happened.  But the tracker isn't neutral and it doesn't know the full story.   Insurance companies don't make money by paying claims, they make money by not paying claims.   I can see how incomplete data could be used against you.   

I understand being wary, but it is temporary. For me, the discount was too tempting.  Do it once for 2-3 months, and you get the discount for as long as you keep your policy (mine even transferred to my next vehicle).

I think the most significant thing they monitor is your phone usage while driving. This may be the biggest risk for most drivers today.

Definitely.  But this was my biggest complaint with the app.  I DO NOT touch my phone while driving.  Ever. Yet, it was recording phone use.  I emailed customer support, and they said first, don’t worry about the 0.2% phone use, it doesn’t count against you, and also that it counts phone use whenever the screen lights up.  They said keep the phone in a more secure place.  On that particular drive, it was in my pocket the whole time, and I didn’t get any calls or notifications, so there wasn’t really anything I could do about the screen randomly lighting up.

In the end, I got a good score.  But it barely tracked any of my drives.  Maybe the fact that I don’t have data on my phone affected it?  Maybe moving twice confused it?

[Tasse]

I think the most significant thing they monitor is your phone usage while driving. This may be the biggest risk for most drivers today.

Definitely.  But this was my biggest complaint with the app.  I DO NOT touch my phone while driving.  Ever. Yet, it was recording phone use.  I emailed customer support, and they said first, don’t worry about the 0.2% phone use, it doesn’t count against you, and also that it counts phone use whenever the screen lights up.  They said keep the phone in a more secure place.  On that particular drive, it was in my pocket the whole time, and I didn’t get any calls or notifications, so there wasn’t really anything I could do about the screen randomly lighting up.

In the end, I got a good score.  But it barely tracked any of my drives.  Maybe the fact that I don’t have data on my phone affected it?  Maybe moving twice confused it?

It's a different app, but with USAA, the phone monitoring is just based on accelerometer data. If I have my phone in a holder displaying a map, I can mess with it all I want and no usage will be recorded as long as I don't move it. (My partner often manages phone stuff from the passenger seat; I don't make a habit of this myself.) But if it falls on the floor and I pick it up at a red light, that might count as handling even if the screen never turns on. It's not the most accurate, but I'm betting it does catch most people who text while driving with their phone in their lap.

I'm betting not having data on your phone made it impossible for the app to function as intended. Glad you got the discount anyway.

[Tasse]

Insurance companies don't make money by paying claims, they make money by not paying claims.   I can see how incomplete data could be used against you.

Yes, but I don't have car insurance because I expect a payout (no comprehensive coverage). I have car insurance because I'm required to. Given that, I'd like to pay as little for it as possible (while still getting adequate liability coverage).

[Sibley]

I’ve done this twice.  Both with Progressive. Once with the plug-in (a million years ago), and recently with the app.

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

But how many times do these things happen to you?  For me, maybe twice a year.  That basically has no impact on the score I get from the tracker.

I drive how the insurance companies like, and I’ve also never been in an accident.  It’s possible, but the ‘where’ part of my driving is also probably a factor.

I live in the Chicago area, and with where I'm regularly driving for work (I audit school districts and munis in the south suburbs of Chicago) I have significantly increased risk. I know this and I do I factor it into my driving already. But I can't control the potholes, kids, construction, or other drivers. Even the expressway is a mess because of mysterious construction that is being done and messing up traffic.

What ends up happening is I'm driving normally (what insurance wants), then I have to speed up/slow down/move over for some reason that is beyond my control, and then I'm outside the parameters of what is considered "good driving". Well, yeah, because some idiot is flooring it to pass 2 cars and then slamming on the breaks because traffic isn't going that fast, and in the process he would have sideswiped me if I hadn't gotten out of the way. These types of scenarios happen basically weekly.

And fuck the phone app. I need the gps, I've got no clue where I am half the time, and I am NOT getting lost in some of these towns. Nor am I getting penalized for using gps. But I do need to get a phone holder, there was a software update and now the gps doesn't flip upside down so I can't stick it the cupholder anymore.

[torso2500]

I have the State Farm tracker. I get dinged for mostly braking or cornering once or twice a week, some incidents are judged unfairly imo.  It will ding for phone use, but you have to be pretty much holding the phone in your hand and actively tapping in apps for it to trigger an event. Navigation and audio control while in a phone mount has never dinged me, even with some tapping. I've been getting 10-20% off over the years I've used it, so I continue

edit to add: I think my app would only record trips linked to the wireless beacon that's in my car. Does the Progressive app record trips for any Snapshot device if you're in range? That seems silly. Is your partner's Snapshot device paired to your app- is there a way to silo your Snapshot to your Progressive app only?

[NotJen]

I have the State Farm tracker. I get dinged for mostly braking or cornering once or twice a week, some incidents are judged unfairly imo.  It will ding for phone use, but you have to be pretty much holding the phone in your hand and actively tapping in apps for it to trigger an event. Navigation and audio control while in a phone mount has never dinged me, even with some tapping. I've been getting 10-20% off over the years I've used it, so I continue

Do you have to continuously use the tracker?  With Progressive it’s temporary.

[torso2500]

Do you have to continuously use the tracker?  With Progressive it’s temporary.

You can take the beacon out of the car or delete/disable the Drive Safe and Save app if you don't want to track a trip

[torso2500]

Do you have to continuously use the tracker?  With Progressive it’s temporary.

oh wait I think I know what you mean now. I think you commit to participating for the policy term. But there's some allowable amount of untracked trips, like if I let my SO borrow my car. You have to submit odometer readings every so often for it. I figure at some amount of untracked miles, they don't let you use the discount, but I don't know where that line is.

[NotJen]

edit to add: I think my app would only record trips linked to the wireless beacon that's in my car. Does the Progressive app record trips for any Snapshot device if you're in range? That seems silly. Is your partner's Snapshot device paired to your app- is there a way to silo your Snapshot to your Progressive app only?

With the Progressive app, it records any trip your phone takes in any car.  There is no wireless device.  You can flag trips where you weren’t driving (and you tell the app how many times on average each week you are driver vs passenger).

[nereo]

edit to add: I think my app would only record trips linked to the wireless beacon that's in my car. Does the Progressive app record trips for any Snapshot device if you're in range? That seems silly. Is your partner's Snapshot device paired to your app- is there a way to silo your Snapshot to your Progressive app only?

With the Progressive app, it records any trip your phone takes in any car.  There is no wireless device.  You can flag trips where you weren’t driving (and you tell the app how many times on average each week you are driver vs passenger).

What happens when you don’t take your phone? Or do they just assume you will always have your phone?  If it’s a short trip I frequently leave my phone behind, but I seem to be in the minority.

[Tasse]

I think they pretty much assume you will always have your phone. But my policy doesn't require the odometer reporting - plus I semi-regularly borrow and drive other cars, and that does count toward my driving record, so I think that would be pretty hard to sort out.

[NotJen]

edit to add: I think my app would only record trips linked to the wireless beacon that's in my car. Does the Progressive app record trips for any Snapshot device if you're in range? That seems silly. Is your partner's Snapshot device paired to your app- is there a way to silo your Snapshot to your Progressive app only?

With the Progressive app, it records any trip your phone takes in any car.  There is no wireless device.  You can flag trips where you weren’t driving (and you tell the app how many times on average each week you are driver vs passenger).

What happens when you don’t take your phone? Or do they just assume you will always have your phone?  If it’s a short trip I frequently leave my phone behind, but I seem to be in the minority.

Then they don’t know you drove that trip - doesn’t count for or against you.

Like I said, the app didn’t record many of my trips, and Progressive didn’t seem to care.  After three months they said I could keep my discount (they give you the discount when you first sign up, and take it away if you don’t follow through), and said I could delete the app.  My discount should stay in place until I cancel my policy.

[GilesMM]

edit to add: I think my app would only record trips linked to the wireless beacon that's in my car. Does the Progressive app record trips for any Snapshot device if you're in range? That seems silly. Is your partner's Snapshot device paired to your app- is there a way to silo your Snapshot to your Progressive app only?

With the Progressive app, it records any trip your phone takes in any car.  There is no wireless device.  You can flag trips where you weren’t driving (and you tell the app how many times on average each week you are driver vs passenger).

What happens when you don’t take your phone? Or do they just assume you will always have your phone?  If it’s a short trip I frequently leave my phone behind, but I seem to be in the minority.

Then they don’t know you drove that trip - doesn’t count for or against you.

Like I said, the app didn’t record many of my trips, and Progressive didn’t seem to care.  After three months they said I could keep my discount (they give you the discount when you first sign up, and take it away if you don’t follow through), and said I could delete the app.  My discount should stay in place until I cancel my policy.

Sounds like I could put the app on a burner phone and slip it in the glovebox of my slowpoke spouse for a few months?

[nereo]

edit to add: I think my app would only record trips linked to the wireless beacon that's in my car. Does the Progressive app record trips for any Snapshot device if you're in range? That seems silly. Is your partner's Snapshot device paired to your app- is there a way to silo your Snapshot to your Progressive app only?

With the Progressive app, it records any trip your phone takes in any car.  There is no wireless device.  You can flag trips where you weren’t driving (and you tell the app how many times on average each week you are driver vs passenger).

What happens when you don’t take your phone? Or do they just assume you will always have your phone?  If it’s a short trip I frequently leave my phone behind, but I seem to be in the minority.

Then they don’t know you drove that trip - doesn’t count for or against you.

Like I said, the app didn’t record many of my trips, and Progressive didn’t seem to care.  After three months they said I could keep my discount (they give you the discount when you first sign up, and take it away if you don’t follow through), and said I could delete the app.  My discount should stay in place until I cancel my policy.

Sounds like I could put the app on a burner phone and slip it in the glovebox of my slowpoke spouse for a few months?

That would be fraud, which is against the forum rules (among other things).

[Tasse]

Claiming that your spouses drives were yours would be fraud, sure, but I don't know that there's any reason you couldn't use a second phone to run the app if you had one. Don't use it as an excuse to text and drive, though.

[FtWorthAtheist]

I called Progressive, and after a discussion with someone in their Snapshot department, it turns out they do have plug-in devices you can choose IF they are compatible with your car.  However, they tell me they aren't compatible with my car because it's an EV.  So basically Progressive isn't very friendly to EV owners who ride in other people's cars unless you want to constantly be telling them which trips are yours and which are theirs.  And I'm already screwed for my next policy term if I were to stay with them, which I definitely won't do because I have better quotes.

USAA has a decent quote with a similar program but they have the same problem in that it uses an app on my phone that probably can't distinguish between me riding in my domestic partner's 4-Runner and me driving in my Soul EV.  I could buy a 2nd phone and leave it in my car, but then I'd have the expense of a 2nd data plan plus the phone itself.  I wonder if instead I could use an automation app like Tasker on my phone to interfere with the insurance app's access to my phone's data whenever it is within range of my partner's 4-Runner's bluetooth.  If it would work, it would probably be cheaper, and the only way it would interfere with legitimate activity would be if we were driving both cars side-by-side down the highway.  But it's possible the app could detect the legitimate masking and mistakenly think it's for illegitimate purposes which could trigger an unfair insurance company response...

[Tasse]

USAA has a decent quote with a similar program but they have the same problem in that it uses an app on my phone that probably can't distinguish between me riding in my domestic partner's 4-Runner and me driving in my Soul EV.  I could buy a 2nd phone and leave it in my car, but then I'd have the expense of a 2nd data plan plus the phone itself.  I wonder if instead I could use an automation app like Tasker on my phone to interfere with the insurance app's access to my phone's data whenever it is within range of my partner's 4-Runner's bluetooth.  If it would work, it would probably be cheaper, and the only way it would interfere with legitimate activity would be if we were driving both cars side-by-side down the highway.  But it's possible the app could detect the legitimate masking and mistakenly think it's for illegitimate purposes which could trigger an unfair insurance company response...

In my experience, the USAA app is better than expected at guessing which times I am driving vs when I am a passenger - though still far from perfect - and I'm not honestly sure how it does it. I suspect to some extent, if you are on your phone a lot, it assumes you weren't driving, whereas if you only pick it up once or twice it thinks you may have been texting while driving? And if you don't move it at all while you are a passenger and it registers that as good driver behavior, no harm done.

Your proposed solution sounds 100x more complex than simply taking <5 min per week to screen your recent trips.

[doneby35]

I used progressive snapshot a couple of years ago. It’s not a big issue. If you ever see one of your trips show you slammed too hard on the brakes or whatever other indicators the app has for less than optimal driving, you just change the trip from driver to passenger, whether you were indeed the driver or not. You’ll always end up with an A+ score if you do that.

[FtWorthAtheist]

Your proposed solution sounds 100x more complex than simply taking <5 min per week to screen your recent trips.

If I was going to remember to do that reliably though, I probably wouldn't be looking for a new insurance discount program at this time.

[merula]

I don't have a telematic device, but I can chime in as someone who has worked in the P&C insurance industry for a couple decades.

Telematics (the industry term for all those tracking devices/apps) exist because the insurance companies think it'll be more profitable for them in the long run to differentiate between different driving behaviors. Personal Auto is a tough business to be in: customers are extremely price sensitive, each state regulates insurance differently and imposes its own rules, and the product itself is almost identical across competitors (because of those regulatory issues). The entire industry has lost money on Auto since 2007.

If you were to apply telematics to any given population of drivers, you'd expect that the group would pay more than an identical group without telematics, because the carrier has to cover the cost of the devices, apps, marketing, and managing that additional data.

HOWEVER, the real benefit as an insurance carrier is twofold: (1) you can attract the very safest drivers who will stay with you because you can offer a discount no one else can compete with, and they will still pay you more in premiums than you pay out in claims/expenses, and (2) most people think they're very good drivers, even when that's clearly not true at all, so they'll agree to telematics up front and then get gouged on the back end.

So, what's a driver to do?

First, only agree to telematics if you are very, very sure that you're an extremely safe driver by the carrier's definition. If you do any of the following, never sign up at all: speed, use your phone, brake hard, swerve, or drive between midnight and 4am. Whether or not any of these make any sense in the real world conditions you're driving in is completely immaterial. On average, all of those things have been actuarially proven to increase risk, meaning the carriers can justify raising your rates. Logic doesn't matter to actuaries, only the math matters.

Second, find an independent insurance agent. These are agents who work with many different insurance carriers and know the ins and outs of all of these programs, which is different from agents who only work with one carrier (Allstate, State Farm, USAA, etc.). Their job is to shop around for you. @FtWorthAtheist, if you tell an agent what you said here, they'll be able to make a suggestion for a different plan with or without telematics. (To find one, you can search "independent agents near me" and look through reviews, or ask a local group for recommendations. Most people don't know the difference between independent and captive agents, though, so look for one with multiple carrier names on their website.)

[rantk81]

I've had the Allstate one several years ago.  It seemed mostly fair on when it logged hard-braking events.  It seemed like only really hard braking was logged.  I don't think it ever had an event for when just coming to a normal stop.

Now, I have the State Farm one, and it is extremely touchy.  I've had numerous "hard-braking events" for just stopping in time for red lights.  I generally don't speed, but I often have "trigger an event" to make a legal stop for a red light.

It's also pretty dumb about logging "distracted driving events" for phone use -- after I've already parked and started using my phone after I've left the car.

However, even with those flaws, it has reduced my premium by a non-trivial amount, so I live with it.  I have to assume that they use aggregated statistics, and, assuming these flaws are occurring for the majority of their customers, their data models will adjust accordingly.

[sonofsven]

I saw the advert on the USAA website when I was re-upping my insurance and looked into it for the ten % discount but decided against it when I read the fine print, since I use my phone occasionally while driving on my rural roads.

I just got a mailer from my state DOT offering a $30 gift card if I install their tracking app on my phone to chart my driving for one week, and I did sign up for that one.

[Chris Pascale]

I'm doing the app with USAA. There's an option where you say "I was not the driver" to resolve just why I sent 45 texts on that trip while also taking song requests and adjusting the GPS.

It goes until 12/31 and is projecting a 25% discount, which I feel is the price of me trading away such valuable data.

When the monitoring period ends, I'm taking the app off.

[afox]

As far as I know, none of those things are capable of distinguishing good driving from bad driving. Slammed on the breaks? Bad.... except when you add in the context of the deer that walked in front of you. Hit the gas hard? Bad... except when you did it because you had to speed up quickly to avoid an accident or get up to speed so you didn't cause an accident. Swerved insanely? Bad... except when the garbage bins fall off the truck in front of you at 70mph and you need to avoid them (still don't know how I avoided them AND didn't hit anyone). I tried Allstate's once out of curiosity and realized pretty quickly that they were inherently flawed. Sometimes, good driving is also fairly crazy.

Except when you do all three (brake hard, slam accelerator, swerve) every time you drive.

or if you live in an area where you have to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting deer and flying garbage bins frequently.

I am in favor of charging more for people that cost more to insure (for any reason) and Im in favor of red light cameras, speed cameras, etc.

Without all of these what ends up happening is that the good guy's pay for the bad guys. My view is if you want to be reckless you should at least pay to be recklesss.

[secondcor521]

When the monitoring period ends, I'm taking the app off.

I thought that removing the app would discontinue the discounts...?

I leave the USAA app on my phone.  My understanding was that each 6 month insurance renewal period would have a discount based on my driving score from the app for the six months before that.

[ChpBstrd]

It would seem these limitations on the app would apply to all drivers using the app equally. So all those people are having the app count their passenger trips, and the actuaries should know this. Thus, everyone is being penalized the same way, except perhaps the people who never ride as passengers.

Your situation is unique because you are often the passenger in a car driven by a very bad driver. If your SO drove like grandma, they would actually be helping your insurance rates!

More importantly, this may be a message from the universe that your SO's bad driving is a risk to your health. Maybe consider talking to the SO about their driving habits using the app as objective evidence something needs to change, or always offer to drive when you two are together. Might save you a disabling injury someday.

I'm sitting on a 7% discount with Farmers. Their app seems most focused around "distracted trips" like when people look at their phone while driving. I often look at the phone when I'm a passenger, so this reduces my discount. Everyone else probably gets dinged this way too.

[Ron Scott]

Car manufacturers who comprise the vast majority of new cars sold in the US participate in the telematics program data exchange by Verisk Analytics, a major insurer vendor, who acts as a trusted broker, and creates some of the analytic tools used to tie observed driving behavior to insured losses.

If you consider the alternatives to pricing car insurance you quickly come to the conclusion this is best. Usage Based pricing and Pay As you Drive beats the hell out of credit scores, sex discrimination (persons IDed as male at birth pay more), or average loss by vehicle type, etc. And you need an intermediary vendor to handle the many-to-many complexities of sharing data between insurers and car manufacturers—as well as to ensure smaller insurers can compete effectively. There are wrinkles for sure but it’s a good model.

Of course when we give up our cars and driverless services are ferrying us around there will be no auto insurance as we know it but for now I like.

(Not a fan of the phone apps and dongles for older cars tho…)

[Chris Pascale]

When the monitoring period ends, I'm taking the app off.

I thought that removing the app would discontinue the discounts...?

I leave the USAA app on my phone.  My understanding was that each 6 month insurance renewal period would have a discount based on my driving score from the app for the six months before that.

I hope the that the next 6 months are based on the past 6 months of tracking. If they jack up the rate based on me not having the app, I'll have to see.

[secondcor521]

When the monitoring period ends, I'm taking the app off.

I thought that removing the app would discontinue the discounts...?

I leave the USAA app on my phone.  My understanding was that each 6 month insurance renewal period would have a discount based on my driving score from the app for the six months before that.

I hope the that the next 6 months are based on the past 6 months of tracking. If they jack up the rate based on me not having the app, I'll have to see.

I've had the USAA app for a few month renewal periods, and it does seem to work that way:  January to June driving score impacts July to December safe driving discount, July to December driving score impacts the next January to June safe driving discount.

I would guess that if I deleted the app in any six month driving period, I would lose the discount at my next renewal.  Since the minimum discount you get for just having the app on your phone is 10%, that would mean a 10% increase in price.