This Gizmo Will Rat On You, and People Love It.

The Truth About Cars ^ | 07/09/2012 | Bertel Schmitt

[nascarnation]

Privacy is highly valued – until we can sell it for a small discount. Hundreds of thousands of auto insurance customers allowed an electronic ankle bracelet fitted to their car in exchange for a possible insurance discount. A year ago, Progressive offered its “”Snapshot“ device. It plugs into your car’s OBD system keeps and collects data that help Progressive to profile your driving. According to Reuters, Progressive already analyzed more than 5 billion driven miles. The company says its driving-behavior data is twice as good as any other factor in predicting risk, and that bad drivers cost Progressive more than twice as much as good ones.

[Nik Naym]

“see texting/ flapping gums on cell phone, swilling coffee, reading book/newspaper, putting on makeup, getting dressed, driving with pet(s)/ small child on lap, watching TV/movie, eating, etc.”

Maybe you should spend a little more time watching where you are going?

[discostu]

Again you’re behind the times. Any car with a built in GPS/ navigator has it now, and those have been moving down from the luxury cars very steadily the last 10 years.

Why go through all that work? It’s completely pointless. The computer itself only stores about 5 minutes worth of data, handy in crash reconstruction. Long term storage is done with devices like Progressive uses, don’t want the data long term, don’t plug one in.

[cynwoody]

Any car with a built in GPS/ navigator has it now, and those have been moving down from the luxury cars very steadily the last 10 years.

I just took a peek inside my $130 suction cup GPS, and it was full of little packets like this one:

<trkpt lat="42.626619" lon="-70.978405">
    <ele>22.73</ele>
    <time>2012-07-08T17:14:22Z</time>
    <extensions>
        <gpxtpx:TrackPointExtension>
            <gpxtpx:speed>37.06</gpxtpx:speed>
            <gpxtpx:course>7.06</gpxtpx:course>
        </gpxtpx:TrackPointExtension>
    </extensions>
</trkpt>

Hint: speed is in meters / second.

[discostu]

Yup, cause that’s what you bought it for. Of course the ones that are built in are hooked up to the car computer, so they don’t have to figure out the speed they get it from the computer, they’re just adding GPS data to the pool that includes all kinds of awesome stuff like you fuel/ oxygen mix, whether or not you’re using your brakes, your seatbelt, tire pressure if you have self monitoring tires. This is the world we asked to live in.