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Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.b00.tHLu.EgCovxk576kv

LexisNexis, which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers, knew about every trip G.M. drivers had taken in their cars, including when they sped, braked too hard or accelerated rapidly.

Automakers Are Sharing Consumers’ Driving Behavior With Insurance Companies

7 comments

captainjaneway

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I guess I'll be holding onto my Toyota 2004 Camry until the day I die.

I hate this kind of sneaky behavior. I hope GM and/or LexisNexis gets torn asunder during the civil litigations. Google has had this data for years... I must assume they aren't providing it to insurance companies yet.

Buddahriffic

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I wonder if there are any guides for removing connectivity hardware from cars entirely, disconnecting their connections to any antennae, or devices to add noise to that antennae and jam any signal.

Or even better, replacements for their entire software.

gravitas_deficiency

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And that’s one of the reasons I’m still enjoying my 2003 Mk4 1.8t Jetta.

EliasTheOG

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Thats why if u want a smart car u should build it yourself.

optissima

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If only Smartcars were sold in the US still...

Showroom7561

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which generates consumer risk profiles for the insurers

Brutal, and I'm not even sure how that's legal. But at the same time, would this have a positive effect on insurance rates? Discounts for good drivers, etc.?

I'm on a pay-as-you-go insurance plan, and they do have my location data when I drive. They stipulate that data gathered from the device would NOT negatively impact my premiums.

Either way, it was something I was willing to consent to because my premiums are dirt cheap. I almost never drive, so my insurance for two people for the entire year is less than $300 Canadian. 😂

But the difference is that I can simply remove the device if I no longer want the insurance and/or share my driving location with them. If it was built-into the car, I wouldn't buy the car.

EDIT: Now that I think about, I'd actually be OK with these cars reporting to insurance for dangerous/unskilled driving, provided that the driver is aware of this. I want to see safer roads, and a lot of that starts with how people drive.

autotldr

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This is the best summary I could come up with:

LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets.

But “drivers are historically reluctant to participate in these programs,” as Ford Motor put it in a patent application that describes what is happening instead: Car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry.

In recent years, automakers, including G.M., Honda, Kia and Hyundai, have started offering optional features in their connected-car apps that rate people’s driving.

In a recent promotional campaign, an Instagram influencer used Smart Driver in a competition with her husband to find out who could collect the most digital badges, such as “brake genius” and “limit hero.”

Neither the car companies nor the data brokers deny that they are engaged in this practice, though automakers say the main purpose of their driver feedback programs is to help people develop safer driving habits.

The other automakers all have optional driver-coaching features in their apps — Kia, Mitsubishi and Hyundai have “Driving Score,” while Honda and Acura have “Driver Feedback” — that, when turned on, collect information about people’s mileage, speed, braking and acceleration that is then shared with LexisNexis or Verisk, the companies said in response to questions from The New York Times.

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