Perhaps many of you need to have a look at smaller or specialty insurance companies such as Leland West. They insure special / expensive cars based on some parameters which include.. must be your 2nd car, limited amount of miles, car must be garaged , must have a good driving record ... Rates are great . I just started to look at that option. Looks very palatable.. Note... I have no connection with this company but think it's a good option to look into.

 

1. I've been thinking about selling a "GPS Jammer"... think about it. When I first happened on the idea it was more of a curiosity...

2. I am VERY uncomfortable with these blackboxes. I believe MY car contains MY data- and *I* should be able to prevent the recording OR be able to erase it. Another product idea there....

3. The snapshot is optional now, but we are right to be concerned.

4. Insurers cannot charge based on "miles driven" if you refuse to report to them.... you just pay a bit more.

 

I have no problem providing my insurance company of the miles I drive every year. I sent them a copy of my latest service invoices. What I do strongly object to is a car nanny that records everything else about how I drive my car. Heavy acceleration may be due to the need to enter a freeway. Heavy braking my be due to the need to avoid an accident. I've been rear ended by two drivers insured by Progressive and they are the worst in regards to paying claims. They flagrantly violate state disclosure laws. We never ended up at trial or mediation (having a PI attorney in the family helps), but they took almost two years to pay both claims after thousands of requests for documents and low ball offers. I hope they plug one of their devices into Flo and find out she moonlights as a **** actress.

 

Priceless!

 

Do you use a cell phone? Your usage info is recorded.

Do you do anything online? Ditto.

Do you buy with a cash/debit card or credit card? Ditto.

The data is yours.

You are given a choice if you want the data used to possibly qualify for a lower insurance premium. If you refuse you pay what you agreed to pay when you signed up.

I'm not sure what the savings is but I seem to recall on the order of 10%.

There is of course the incentive for the insurance company to raise the initial rate to encourage adaptation of using one of these devices. Insurance companies want to get rid of bad drivers. They want to insure only the good drivers.

As for the miles driven scheme, I do not know for sure, but I suspect if you refused one of the devices the coverage cost would be based on the worst case number of miles driven, the highest miles driven per year bracket. This could have you paying more than a 'little bit more".

In the event of an accident, for instance, while the data belongs to the driver or the owner of the car, the data can be requested by the authorities, along with just about any of your other personal data that a judge will allow the authorities to collect with of course a proper search warrant or subpoena.

If this black box data is destroyed by someone, say someone involved in an accident, the courts do not look favorably upon someone suspected of wrong doing or negligence in the case of an accident destroying data that could have cleared this someone, shown him to be not at fault. The thinking is that no one would destroy that which would clear him.

Sincerely,

Macster.