Opinions on TripSensor

[KathmanduCruiser]

I signed up for the tripsensor program with an insurance company. The story is that you hook it up to your vehicle's diagnostics port, it collects data on your start and end time along with your speed. It does not collect data on where you go.

When the time comes to renew your insurance, you upload the data from the tripsensor to some site and get a 5 to 25 percent discount on the insurance price. You get a 5 percent discount no matter what the driving patterns show. If your driving patterns show that you are a safe driver driving in a less-dangerous area, you can get up to 25 percent off.

Do you have experience with tripsensor?

Do you know of potential issues in connecting their monitor to the diagnostics port of the 100?

 

[e9999]

whoah!

one thing you may want to ask yourself is what's in there for them...? if you're a good driver and they get more $$ out of you, why wouldn't they? The better for them. One thing I have painfully learned is that insurance companies are not philantropic institutions doh: but it gets worse...) Would not be surprised if this could come back and bite you big time some day...

tech content: I can't imagine this would hurt anything as long as the gizmo doesn't try to upload stuff

 

[DoctorJay]

I sure wouldn't do this.

1. Can they show you a distribution of who gets what discount? I mean, I wonder what percentage of people get anything more than a 5% discount.

2. What if they find out you were speeding at the time of an accident? Can they deny a claim?

3. Who cares? 5% of my insurance is like $4 a month.

4. What's the fine print? When they ask how many miles a year you drive, you just tell them. Insurance premiums are based on a per-mile risk (up to a point; there's also a per-year risk). If they catch you "rounding down" like everyone does, can they bump your premium?

5. As above, what's in it for them? I'd guess more accurate actuarial tables, or some correlation between specific roads and accidents.

Just my $0.02 (which is 0.025% of my monthly premium).

 

[aedgington]

I would be also be concerned about having a "black box" that might help them deny claims.

 

[calbo]

It is said that insurance companies sometimes supply or subsidize local police departments with laser and radar detectors. The more speeding tickets cops issue, the more money insurance companies make off speeders' increased premiums.

If there's any truth to this, then it's inevitable that the data from the little black box will make its way to your friendly police department.

 

[1loudLX]

GM vehicles have had a "black box" in them since 1998. And this little TripSensor...not for me, I dont need people recording my every action. Have fun driving Ms. Daisy...because with that little gizmo, thats all you can do.

 

[Jim_Chow]

I wouldn't want people knowing where I've gone. That can potentially hurt you in the future. My LX is listed as a DD eventhough it's a road trip car and only gets driven on the weekend. I asked my agent whether it would be cheaper to list the LX as a rec car, and he told me it would cost MORE as a rec vehicle than as a DD!! I guess their statistics must show that SUV owners have more incidents while having fun? Maybe they go skiing and slide into a ditch, or hit a deer in the mountains and do a few grand of front-end damage?