Mr. Gizmo

Today I recieved a letter from state farm stating that new cars today are equipped with devices, that allow them to observe driver habits. If you register with state farm safe driver program, they would decrease my premium by 5%.

I would guess that somehow they tap in to on-star. When the trial of on-star expired on my z when it was new, i did not opt to pay for continued service.

What would keep big brother from not looking over my shoulder short of ripping any of these tracking devices / onstar out of my car???

This makes me want to sell my Z and get in to 69 427 corvette.
cyber snoopers are everywhere gathering big data to track our every move.

SHovV

Les

I think it was 1.5-2 years ago when State Farm teamed up w/ OnStar and offered a free year of OnStar service. When folks started figuring out that OnStar was changing their policy and had plans to share info gathered through their system, there was an outrage. I had signed up for the free year and I promptly disabled my On-Star. It became more difficult on cars newer than my 08 Z06, but for me it was as simple as pulling a fuse. Pizz on 'em!

Sm5654

My wife is a State Farm agent... the new gizmo is a little different. They are actually going to get a device and put it in your car, no tapping into onstar. The downside to this is they are definitely looking at your driving habits. I would recommend putting this on your daily driver but not on the Z06. Also your discount is going to be a lot more than 5% as long as you drive pretty normal.

rage793

These devices register g's can tell if you brake to hard or accelerate to fast. Referred to as a tattle tail in fleet vehicles. I think it would end up raising insurance rates rather that decreasing them.

Z.06

When your insurance company in increasing the annual premium by 15% to get the same coverage as last year, with no tickets in the last 4 years, no accidents in the last 7 years and no at-fault accidents ever, I guess the insurance companies can easily afford to offer anything up to 15% reduction for mounting a Big Brother. Thanks Liberty Mutual, but don't count on installing one of these devices on any of my cars.

Thanks also for jumping my LM house policy by the same percentage.

BazookaJoe

The one I see all the time on the commercials looks like it plugs right into the OBD2 port. Think it's progressive but not 100% sure.

Z2Z

just another reason that I'm glad my car didnt come with onstar!

Bill Dearborn

What's OnStar got to do with a device that an insurance company has you install in your car? OnStar doesn't have the time, the cell phone network bandwidth to broadcast all of that data from millions of cars to their data center and then send it on to specific insurance companies based on which company that has the policy. It would bury them in extra charges for using the cell phone network, would cost them to add the data center assets and software to distribute the data and would detract from what they do very well, crash notification. I took State Farm up on their free year and they never said a peep when the car was on the track. I paid to renew the subscription and have it on all 3 of my cars now.

If you worry about people spying on you are doing the worst thing possible by using the internet. I also have a special aluminum foil that can be used to stop the spies. It sells for $3K per roll plus shipping and handling charges of $500. It comes with a 5 year no questions asked money back guarantee that refunds the purchase price in full.


Bill

Andydp

Earlier post had it right: its Progressive that will track your habits and price the policy accordingly.

Its a little black box that plugs into your OBD port, its used for a period of time then you send it back for "evaluation". I definetly would not use it on Big Bird (2006 VY ZO6) but on my Sonata...

Re OnStar: didn't they get in trouble for "keeping track" of discontinued members ?

BDharley07

I received the same notice from State Farm. They can now track my trash can!

JwT

Hey anybody here that thinks State Farm wants to give you a deal must be living where the pot is legal. I'm 57, State Farm covers my house, 2 cars and 1 truck. I have no tickets or violations for the last 15years. Their best deal on covering my 07 Z........$2000.00 a year.
Wow thanks a lot for the break.....But no thanks.. I called Grundy Worldwide......$570.00 a year.....YEAH BABY!!!

JwT

There is a reason the cost is low. The Z is not my daily driver and it's considered a collector car by Grundy. I can drive the car 5k miles a year which is plenty for me.

clogan

Yup...it's Flo in those Progressive ads. This is not (yet) legal in all states. For example, Tennessee state law does not (yet) allow these monitoring devices. Of course, it's only a matter of time until our legislators here in Nashville will change the law, since they are pretty much bought and paid for anyhow. Yes, I am pretty cynical, I admit.

USAF

Ask yourself this question:

When is the last time your insurance comapnty did anything to your benefit?

USAF

Landru

Wagering a C-note you're spot-on.
This is 'voluntary' now, a small carrot's offered visa vi a 'discount'. Great.

After a while though, bet those declining participation will be assumed reckless, it'll be implied nonparticipant rates will have to be higher.

Welcome to the future.

Bill Dearborn

I have two cars and a Tahoe covered by SF. The Corvettes yearly share of the insurance bill is about $600.

Bill

clogan

BTW...I just looked at my Travelers policy...my Z06 semi-annual premium is $265. That's for 100/500/500 liab/collision/comprehensive coverage. One ticket in past 5 years.

My wife's Ford Focus is $218. That's surprisingly little difference to insure one of the highest performing sports cars out there.

YMMV

LFZ

JoesC5

When State Farm offered me a free OnStar account a couple of years ago, it was for the purpose of gathering information on how I drove my car. If I drove super conservatively, I would get a rate reduction. If I drove aggressively, I would get a rate increase. I threw the offer in the trash.

So, I guess that OnStar is able to monitor all those accounts and report the findings to State Farm, unlike what you believe. Otherwise, why would State Farm pay for a OnStar account for my car if they didn't get anything in return, like data on how I drive my car(s).