Posted on 07/21/2009 6:32:35 AM PDT by laotzu
Progressive Insurance Companies in Texas is launching a unique program in Texas which may save you money on your car insurance, but has civil libertarians worried, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Progressive is offering discounts starting today to motorists who are willing to have a device placed into their cars which will notify the company about the customer’s driving habits.
"It doesn't tell where you're driving, it just tells them a little about your driving habits," insurance industry spokesman Jerry Johns told 1200 WOAI news.
Johns says the system is in place in other states, but the Progressive attempt is the first in Texas. He says customers can save up to $100 on their insurance premiums.
"Insurers would charge less for someone who drives fewer miles, and probably more for somebody who drives a considerable number of miles," Johns said.
The electronic device automatically notifies the insurance company of how many miles you drive, how fast you drive, whether you make 'jackrabbit' starts and stops, and other facets of your driving.
Progressive spokesman Richard Hutchison says most drivers can save 10 to 15 percent on their premiums, but he warns that it could result in your insurance rates going up.
"Drivers who tend to benefit the most are infrequent drivers, low mileage drivers, drivers who don't drive after midnight, and drivers who are more 'defensive' drivers than 'offensive' drivers," Hutchinson told 1200 WOAI news.
But the American Civil Liberties Union has some concerns about the idea.
"We would caution drivers that any time you're signing up to hand over personal information, you should be asking some very specific questions," the ACLU's Jose Medina said. "What data is being collected, how it is going to be sued, and whether it is going to be destroyed."
Progressive is a rip-off...
” it just tells them a little about your driving habits,” insurance industry spokesman Jerry Johns told”
A nation of free people will not tolerate something like this.
Hopefully our nation will agree.
Red light cameras are part of the same cancer.
I recall them to have been the sleaziest, most arrogant bunch of insurance salesman I'd met (to date) when the first popped up in FL a decade-plus ago.
Anyway, ain't technology grand? Are people finally getting a clue how "capitalism" leads to totalitarianism, just like Marx said, when morality is made illegal?
This is Texas.
You can’t from point a to point b in many parts of the state without surpassing the speed limit because of distance or traffic flow.
Hey Obama missed this in the health no care bill. Track people’s drivng habits to determine who gets an ambulance in case of an accident. Dispatcher, “Negative on that Life Flight request officer, we see the driver was doing 20 miles over the speed limit.”
So you can save 10-15%...hmmm...turn this around. If insurance companies were already monitoring our driving habits, most people would be far more then willing to pay 10-15% more to have this removed.
I don’t know... how will the habit of picking my nose whilst driving impact my insurance?
Negatively: because I have a hand off of the wheel?
Positively: because I can breathe better/easier, thereby providing more oxygen to my brain and reducing the chance of accident?
How do our habits affect all this!? [;)]
The name fits the practice. Sleezy, intrusive, and won’t work.
I’ll stick with the best insurance company - USAA.
“What data is being collected, how it is going to be sued, “
I wonder if that is a real typo?
sued used
Your driving habits are “monitored” by your insurance company to some degree.
When you apply for insurance, they ask you what you do, where you work, how many miles you drive each day and they check your drivers license record.
When I moved and changed State Farm agents, the lady pulled up a speeding ticket I got in Hawaii more than a year earlier. It cost me 40 bucks more for the policy.
>Red light cameras are part of the same cancer.
I do want to see many, many cases of .”22 v. Red Light Camera” being reported... but maybe that’s just my destructive side coming out.
Maybe a more creative prank should be done. Photographs of city council members license plates should be taken.
Then with the magic of Photoshop, make those photos into license plate replicas, put them on a another car, and go out and run red lights with cameras (only when safe to so of course).
After a few tickets arrive in the mail; maybe they would change their views.
A nation of free people will be free to enter into any legal contract they wish.
If somebody who drives at exactly the speed limit for a very limited # of miles wants to enter into this contract, it’s fine. I probably couldn’t get away with it ;)
As long as it’s not government-mandated.
Somebody’s already been doing this.
I think some high school students did it with copies of their teachers’ plates.
>> With a name like ‘Progressive’, it has to be good.
Why does it not surprise me that the insurance company behind “monitoring” the populus is none other than Progressive?
Founder Peter Lewis is a BIG lefty. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1375232/posts
I would never buy insurance from these scum, just on principle.
LOL - That DOES sound like fun.
Years ago, Progresive submitted and their bank cashed a check I wrote to Millview Wesleyan Church. I’d crossed checks on Sunday, and the church called and notified me on Tuesday. Called Progressive to explain, and they’d already processed the church’s check as payment. I bid them good-bye shortly afterward.
There's nothing that angers scofflaws any faster than those who obey the law. Any attempt to enforce the law is met with cries of outrage usually based around how any enforcement action is based solely on revenue concerns.
The only road rage I ever see is on the part of not the one who's safety or personal space has been invaded, but rather by those who did the invading and then get outraged when the invaded has the gall to call them on it.
I’m afraid habitual speeders often have the maturity level of a two year old when it comes to their desire to want to drive as fast as they want. Many probably did not get enough discipline when young in order to instill a respect for the law and the ingrained manners which give rise to a natural respect for the other guy.
Try getting in an accident with one of their policy holders.
They refused to pay fair market value for my totaled vehicle. I told them to provide me with a list of 3-5 vehicles in the same condition that I could buy for what they were trying to give me. They refused.
Then when I bought it back and fixed it, I had to wait something like 2 months before they would release my CLEAR title back to me.
One of my wife’s friends got low balled the same way.
I will do everything I can to lose these dirt bags as much business as I can.
This isn't much different than the initiative where auto insurance companies in some states offer discounts if policy holders voluntarily agree to a cap on non-monetary damages related to auto accidents.
It comes as no surprise to her that public highways and byways are becoming a no-man’s-land, inhabited by more and more two-year-old's in adult bodies driving adult machines. They see the police the same way they saw their parents and other authority figures. They feel they have to obey the rules, laws, only if someone can make them do it. To them, it's not breaking the law or a rule to do so if you don't get caught. And when you do get caught it's NEVER your fault. You're always the victim, never responsible for anything that happens to you.
You should see the parents’ reactions early in the school year when she speaks in her ‘principal’ tone of voice to one of the kids who delights in ignoring their parents! Some of them have actually come to think that making a child behave and avoid risky behavior is a form of child abuse!
I could go on and on, but I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the choir.
You sum it up well. The pandemic speeding on the highways is part of a larger problem in the world. And I wish more parents would realize the importance of training their kids from the beginning. As your wife’s account shows, the moral battle is well on its way to being won or lost even by the time kids reach preschool.
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