State Farm In-Drive program

They're trying to 'sell' the idea here too. It's more common for the insurers of young drivers to offer big discounts if one is used.

I don't like the idea. I don't want people knowing how I drive. What if you hit a pot hole or one of the many speed humps we have here? Does that register as a speed bump or erratic driving?

Some things are good ideas and this isn't one.

 

i have state farm for my truck i know this is a prius forum but i want to clear some of the controversy on here. i just got the in-drive device almost a month ago. but it is free for the first year. first you can save up to 50% on you insurance premium. which my monthly insurance is $66 you save 5% just for registering but if i do real well i can get my payments down to about $36.30 a month which would be a great help. i am 20 years old so i pay a high price for just liability coverage. but i live on gravel roads where there are many deer and sometime you have to slam your brakes to avoid hitting them. so before i got the in-drive device i spoke to the person about these things. first i asked about the occasional slamming on the brakes to avoid deer and he said that it won't hurt the grade i get that it is good driving to occasionally hit the brakes. he said they look for a habit of always accelerating real fast and always hitting your brakes. so if you hit a pot hole or slam your brakes to avoid that idiot that pulled out in front of you then you will be alright. my next question i asked him was that i also have a code reader for my truck so i asked him if it will hurt anything if i sometime pull the in-drive device out to check the codes and he said that was fine you just can't leave the device unplugged for extended periods of time like 3 or 4 days at a time. so that clears another question someone had on here about the code reader. also when i say you can save up to 50% i asked him how that worked and he said that they go in increments of 5% then 10% then 25% then up to 50% so i would assume that the 5% is instant for having the device so after the first month if you do good then you save 10% on the next month bill then 25% then 50% so with my thinking i would assume that it would take about 3 months to reach a saving of 50%. so in all i hope i helped clear some questions up about this and i can't wait till i start saving in general i think i am a very cautious good driver mainly because i don't have much money and i couldn't afford to get a new vehicle if i did something stupid and wrecked mine.

 

I'm wondering what would happen after you get in an accident. Say you were over the speed limit or you made a turn without fully stopping or something like that. They could say, "Hey Jack, you were speeding". Or maybe the other guy can request access to your driving data if the accident is your fault. Some lawyer could have fun with that. I see too many ways this data could be used against you.

 

lol you're not meant to say that!

It's all a cracking way of reducing premiums for safe drivers OR a jolly good way to get proof you were the idiot and thus not pay up or increase your premium next year!

Depending on the insurer depends on which of the above applies!

What happens if you were unlucky enough to hit a pot hole and the device measures a massive jolt? Does it assume the former or does it assume you're a crazy driver? I don't know what it's like in the US but here insurers only want to know your accident record upto 5 years. If they were bothered about your safe driving record then surely they'd measure upto 7 or 10 years rather than push a device that could be used to their benefit?

I

 

*Shrugs* Come on in.

So you're saying that they don't just monitor you, you pay them to monitor you?

Trenten, do you understand that State Farm is a for-profit business? For every one person who saves 50% there are going to be two people who pay 50% extra. They are not interested in anything that reduces their revenue. They are not handing out those devices to save you money, they are handing them out to improve their profit margins.

They have computers chew through the data. They are looking for profiles. You have no way of knowing what profile they will decide you fit. Once they have you pegged you will have no way to get back out of their classification. If you and the algorithm disagree about what counts as "occasional slamming on the brakes" guess which one of you wins?

So it has a capacitor. *yawns*

Did you get a written guarantee any of this will apply to you?

Do you really think they will favor a raw 20 year old who is busy dodging deer over all those retired baby boomers creeping along in their five-airbags and computerized-brakes Priuses? You are treating these people as if they're friends who want to help you. They are not.

 

I should bring my 1990 crown vic (OBDI) there and ask them to "hook me up"!

When they go under the dash to find the connector an it isn't there, I'll open the hood and show them this:



"Don't you guys have an adapter?"

 

got some screen shots for you. its very basic if you drive like a idiot don't get the program. if you drive safe then by all means get it. also i live out in the country and don't go to town that often like maybe 4 times a month so i don't drive much at all so that is one reason i enrolled for the program. also what the hell is up with all the criticism on my post didn't realized it would be analyzed so much and then disputed on every word i said. also you said it has a capacitor yawn what is that supposed to mean if its not plugged in it can't monitor anything it gets all its data from the computer on the vehicle. YAWN. in all i think it will work for me they just classify everyone as a bunch of idiots on the road and if i can help save some money on MY insurance then ill do it. also there is now way this program can make you pay more money. and at the end of my first free year i don't plan to keep paying for it. and i in no way think the insurance companies are my friends there a bunch of co** su***ng money hungry mother f***ers. there a monopoly company that takes advantage of there customers.(hughesnet internet company is even worse ).

 

When I look at them I am thinking that it is a slick sales pitch. They want you to do something. Ask yourself why? They are claiming that someone somewhere is going to benefit, I just don't trust it to be me, no matter what the web site says.

I may have been careless. I am concerned about this program but have no issues with you. My apologies if I was rude.

The behavior you report for the device matches up with something that has a volatile memory and a capacitor. Three or four days is about the right length of time for a capacitor to self discharge. The *yawn* part meant I was underwhelmed by the device.

For the first gen units probably true. Modern vehicles are coming out with bluetooth, cell interfaces, various telematics. The second gens. will be out, what, Tuesday? and will work with all these wireless interfaces.

A perfectly reasonable goal. I hope it works for you.

You don't *see* any way they can squeeze you harder. I have seen what they have done in the past to other people who thought something was what it looked like. I assume they have some kind of angle.
I think what we have here is a difference in attitude. My attitude can be reasonably summed up by this quote from rogoshen1 :


GIve it 10 years and you'll have your health and life insurance companies discussing your shopping habits with your grocery store, your car insurance company with it's lojack device in your car (or failing that, your smartphones GPS data), and 100% of your web-usage habits tracked and correlated to YOU. It's 12:30 am and maybe it's the wine, but as melodramatic as this sounds, we're a society marching into our own yokes -- all for the sake of convenience and saving 10 cents on a pack of toilet paper.

 

Whenever something is sold "for your convenience or benefit", it's usually something to be wary of.

 

i have to say i completely agree with the last statement you made it couldn't be any more true than that. but even thou we deal with these money hungry companies if i get a chance to save some money i will mainly because i am very poor. like most other people but these screen shots are of my recent insurance bills and what i have saved so far i haven't saved much but that is because i haven't had the device for a month yet. but when my full month of savings happen and i get the grade report for it i will be sure to post that on here.


this is what i have saved so far using this FREE program so hey $3.46 is just what i saved for just signing up for the program after i have had it for a month i will update this with my full monthly savings and ill even post my score report on here for everyone to see( lol why not if i am being watched why not let everyone see. ) but i am saving money also i drive safe anyway when other cars are around anyway. but it don't report speeds over 80 it says so ill know for sure because i often do *(75 in a 60)* (god i hope state farm dont' look at this lol)



*(while playing computer racing games)