My car insurance company knows way too much.
I'm Brad Cooper, a user experience designer and front-end programmer with a passion for realizing ideas both visually and technically.
(856) 316-7128
I just signed up for new car insurance and because I live in New Jersey I was given the option to ‘plug in’ a driving habit monitor. I’m not sure if it was a bad idea yet or not.
I’m a crazy driver, like most New Jerseyans.
All I had to do was plug in a little wireless adapter into my car computer and it uploads information about the way I drive directly to them. Jersey is one of only a handful of states that are doing this so far.
What I’m afraid of is that they’ll realize that I’m a pretty bad driver. Every day I drive almost 100 miles and at times I top 80mph. And most of my commute is a lot of quickly driving and quickly stopping. (You’ll know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever driven the Schuylkill Expressway in Philly)
Most drivers in New Jersey drive crazy – so hopefully my data will be pretty typical – or it may even be less than typical. I hope for the best.
They say they won’t cancel me…
I combed through their policy and they state that they won’t increase the payment or cancel your insurance based on that data. We’ll see. They say they’ll only use it to give discounts and I doubt I’ll be reaping any of those benefits.
Why just monitor speed?
Having been in an accident a few years back (dude ran a red light and I hit him) in which they weren’t able to determine who’s fault it was, wouldn’t it make more sense to put a dashboard video camera in the car?
I’d think I’d go for that.
If I get canceled…
I’m sure I’ll vent about it. Loudly.