Progressive: Rate Suckers Change up the UBI Message

Very interesting, good read

This is enough for me to know about Progressive Insurance's Snapshot device to stay away. That device is intrusive and invasive and the ACLU should look into it.. But there's a catch that you can read about here.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/peterlewis.asp

You get in an accident and the gizmo tells them everything you and the car were doing leading up to it. They don't like what they see, put their own interpretation and spin on it and your coverage for the accident goes "bye-bye". Even if you don't get in an accident, it's got your average and top speed, how many times you slammed on the brakes, swerved, took evasive, ABS activated, stability control took over..who knows what else. Plug this thing in and you're putting a 7x24 insurance spy in your car and who knows how much data is stored or for how long. I bet they wouldn't like seeing gaps in the data either. (from the owner unplugging it) No thanks.

Does the Progressive Insurance device include a GPS? That would certainly be a big plus, because:

* They would know what roads you drive at what time, and could classify roads as to risk by accident rate, and therefore calculate your exposure to that risk.
* They can "geofence" more dangerous (crime rate, poverty rate) areas and calculate your exposure and risk there
* Do you drive often from California to Vegas? Are you a gambler?
* Do you have a large cellphone bill? Data plan? Are you using your phone while driving? Where were you when you were using your phone?
* Do you pay your bills on time? (Are you a planner or just get what comes along?)

I'm sure you can think of many other data-matching opportunities in this era of big data.

Nothing good can happen with this device. you can be acting appropriately - braking hard to avoid a collision- and the insurance will tag that as a bad behavior. If you do have an accident, the insurance will probably use the information to avoid paying. .

Gee whiz Mr. Jones, reviewing your claim, you hit a deer up there in Northmore, Maine. I'm so sorry to hear this, but you were doing 60 mph and we see no evidence that you attempted to brake or swerve or otherwise try to avoid the deer. Oh yes, and phone records indicate you called your spouse on her cell phone from "Manny's Tap" over there in "Arctic Circle, Maine" just ten's minutes before the accident. They -have- confirmed you enjoyed a beverage or two...Perhaps these were a contributing factor.... (yada yada yada)

What I feel is really needed at this point is some high profile lawsuits where Progressive themselves (not just the driver that they insured) is named in the suit because they discouraged their driver from braking adequately which directly led to the accident.

I'm sure that there will also be accidents where a Progressive insured driver could have avoided the accident but failed to do so because they hesitated to accelerate fast enough to avoid the accident, but I doubt if a third party involved in the accident could win in those cases. Perhaps the next-of-kin of someone that Progressive managed to deter from accelerating might win a nice lawsuit though.

Years ago I had a 240Z. Never had an accident in it and I'm convinced it was the safest car that I've ever driven. Of course, no air-bags. No shoulder restraint. If it had lap belts I don't think I ever used them. But it was safe because it would accelerate when told to. More than once I avoided a bad situation because the car would go where it was told when it was told, without wasting time slowly coming up to speed.

Can't say the same of my 2002 Lexus ES300... Throttle response is like a wet sponge in the rain...

I find both the Progressive and Geico commercials ridiculous and annoying. Whatever channel I'm watching I switch to another channel and return when the commercial is over.
I can only imagine the cost to air those commercials.
And guess who's paying the bill, of course it's the policy holders.

BTW, Warren Buffet who owns Geico is the second richest person in the USA worth 46 billion.
My neighbor worked for Geico and had to quit, they monitored her every move and timed her bathroom breaks. One things for sure, Geico will never see any of my hard earned money, and neither will Progressive with their big brother policy.

Boy do we have a bunch of paranoid people on this post. First thing many of you forgot was that you have to volunteer to use the Progressive device. You can't reasonably complain about something you volunteered for. You can always pull the plug at any time.
All new cars have computers in them that will record data about your driving habits and with reason can access it.
Garmin has HD Ecorout plug which does the same as Progressive's plug and I can obtain the same data to be displayed on my computer.
The plug records your driving habits over a period of time and gives you a rating so that the one time you had to accelerate or brake will not change the score. This is to average your habit so that your drive on the interstate To LA will average with you taking the 101 in downtown LA at rush century.
Don't like it don't use it.

I'm not paranoid... I just don't trust insurance companies. I'm actually surprised it took them this long to figure out a way to get people to voluntarily let them spy on their OBD data.

You have a choice of insurance companies so it is not a big brother item.
My Garmin tells me the same information the Progressive plug would tell them which basically is that I do not race from stoplight to stoplight and press hard on the brakes.
Insurance companies can only spy on you with YOUR permission so it is you giving them permission to do so.
When my car broke down and was towed to the garage, I looked up the error code on my Garmin and told the manager exactly what was wrong which surprised him.
Personally I do not have Progressive for they are to expensive for me and my driving record (my only accident was a deer running into me and destroying my left front fender and not touching the hood and the repair bill shows that)so I would never use their plug.

Perhaps I'm not understanding your post correctly, the way I interpret it is your saying your car broke down and your GPS diagnosed the problem.

I have used automotive code readers before to diagnose car problems but I'm unaware of any GPS that
has the ability to display vehicle error codes.

Your profile does not show a built in GPS, please clarify if your GPS is a built in one and has the ability to display error codes.

.

He's talking about his Garmin EcoRoute plugin, which plugs into the OBD port on his car and transmits any error codes to the GPS it's used with.

For about $15, you can get a bluetooth OBD reader which you can use with TorquePro ($10) on your android phone. In addition to any error codes, it will give you GPS position and speed, speeds based on the car speed sensor, and anything else the OBD knows about, all presented in almost infinitely configurable gauge format.

Cheers,
--Lee

I have a 1490 with the accesory Ecoroute HD which when plugged in to the OBD plug will tell me the error codes of the car if there are some. It also can show gauges of RPM, Speed, TEMP of coolant, Intake air temp,etc.
In my case when the car died, I looked on the Garmin and it had two codes and when I tapped them they showed that it was the generator failure.
It sells for about $99 plus shipping
My Prius has a built in voice controlled GPS unit that has 5 routes capability and 100 addresses to use.
The part I like is that on interstates it shows what services there are at upcoming exits and where the rest areas are without touching or voice command.

As I recall, this topic on Progressive was brought up a couple of years ago when it first came out. I don't think very many thought it was a good idea even back then, as the ramifications were very clear.

I did mention in my above statement that I had a Prius.
If your car is stopped and towed to the garage that free reading will not help.
There are no ramifications for everything I can see on my Garmin can be accessed by anyone (including the police) who can read my computer.
I participated in the original Progressive posts and have no change of opinion in its inception for it will not do them any good.
You can get the same information on your Android with the right program and even read what other cars within about 30 feet that have the reader plug installed.
I am not paranoid because that information on my car computer must show I did something wrong such as no seat belt or I did not apply brakes before the crash. It will not show how drunk I was or if I ran a red light.