Insurance Idea, if only....

[davek0974]

Had an idea on way to work this morning, see what you think, its a double-edged plan though - some may see it as big bro watching, some may see it as a way to cheaper motoring.


Car insurance - open to fake claims, all drivers get punished with high prices, easy to not pay it and still drive, so on.

How about this - all cars are fitted with a device that has an accelerometer, tracker and speed monitor. It will be paid for by the insurance company of your choice. This will log info like a flight recorder does, relaying it to the insurance co. They will use this to see your driving style - aggressive, fast, hard braking, smooth & steady, so on and then adjust your premium based on your "risk" related to your style, the costs will be lowered to start with.

Next, in the case of a shunt, if you were not moving then you clearly cannot be at fault so no need to worry, it log which direction the shunt was from and how hard. If you hit someone then it will check how fast you were going etc and so on. If you hit the tree that jumped out in front then its obviously your fault.

This will remove the fake claims for accident compo, make people think about their driving style, reward safe drivers, punish bad drivers, premiums will massively drop due to no false claims.

Ok, so its got some faults but i know the technology exists, even an ipod knows what direction it moving in! But what you reckon?? If it means cheap insurance is that a bad idea. As all cars would be tracked, theft should drop too.

Obviously there would have to be no access to the data by irate wives, husbands and bosses etc.

 

[mikeadams1985]

In theory, nice idea.
Practice, the cost of implementing such a system would mean premiums would still stay just as high.

its used alot in america i believe, alot of cars have cameras installed and store video for a X amount of time incase of accidents. - something the home diy'er could do and use incase of a crash.

 

[crashbox]

The insurance companies would just pass the costs onto us. In any case, they wouldn't be able to wriggle out of claims so they wont be interested. Good idea though.

 

[davek0974]

In theory, nice idea.
Practice, the cost of implementing such a system would mean premiums would still stay just as high.

its used alot in america i believe, alot of cars have cameras installed and store video for a X amount of time incase of accidents. - something the home diy'er could do and use incase of a crash.

The technology is cheap, i would guess less that 1 year premuim cost. Good point though.

The insurance companies would just pass the costs onto us. In any case, they wouldn't be able to wriggle out of claims so they wont be interested. Good idea though.

They wont be able to wriggle out but equally they wont need to pay out as much either.

Biggest bonus would be for youg drivers as they get caned just for being young, wheras they would be made to think about the way they drive and get caned when and if they cause an accident.

It would stop drivers without insurance overnight, as a car can be pretty much located anywhere and found immediately, this would be a major saving. It would stop "failing to report" accidents too, hit-n-runs and many more insurance costs.

I still think the benefits outweigh the costs, insurance companies waste millions on duff claims which could be stopped. It would even catch the bastards that pull away at a roundabout and then slam on the brakes causing a shunt and blaming the car behind.

The biggest saving would be young drivers as they would be made to think about how they drive and behave and be penalised accordingly especially if they cause an accident.

 

[landy1uk]

Didn't Norwich union now Aviva do this for the young drivers on a voulentry bases few years ago, remember reading something about it,
they were thinking of doing pay as you go insurance as well if i remember

 

[davek0974]

Pay as you go sounds reasonable too, a parked car only gives a theft risk so if only used once a week why should i pay through the nose for accident cover?

It would still need the technology angle though to prove it was not being driven.

It would be an interesting experiment to set up an insurance company with the techno-tracker device being compulsory and fitted free but you get much lower premiums than any other company, see how many customers you get. I guess you would rip the others to shreds

 

[Optimus Prime]

there was one of the insurer's, and the premiums were lower, as long as the car was at the home address between the hours of 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM I think, it had a tracker fitted so they knew where the car was. They had your credit card number, everytime the car was being used during the curfew times, they would bill you a fixed amount.

as for the recorder angle, great idea, if it could be interfaced fully with the car, it could even record whether the lights were on or off, whether the indicators were on, fog lights, windscreen wipers, would solve a lot of disputed claims for sure.

 

[matwest904q]

It sounds like a great idea. Even if the insurers didn't want the initial outlay, how about buying an approved kit and do it yourself. Although you have the initial outlay you could use it through the years with different insurance companies in return for a lower premium, like Pass Plus.

 

[landroverjack]

Just wish they would do something like this!! Instead of always taking the back seat and using excuses like 'its all based on statistics'. I would happily pay for something like that to prove I am not a ridiculously fast or dangerous driver!

 

[davek0974]

Blimey, sounds like I hit on a good idea

I like the DIY kit angle too, I would go for that.

....puts thinking cap on....

 

[matwest904q]

What kind of technology are we talking about? Would it be data collection on it's own or data collection with video recording. Like a continuos loop of the last 1 or 2 hours for instance.

 

[davek0974]

Anythings possible, video is always good to have. I would look at speed, direction, acceleration/deceleration rate, lighting in use, so on.

Maybe have video as an even higher discount option.

This is all easy technology nowadays, no reason for it to be overly costly.

 

[lil_me]

I prefer the insure the driver not the car, think that's how it works in Germany or somewhere, if you drive you need to be an insured driver

 

[Ryder]

I like this idea!!! But then I do have a vested interest. The technology is, as has been noted, cheap and easily obtainable but there are one or two problems that would need to be addressed. The first is that the data would need to be seriously encrypted to stop anyone tampering with the video or tracker data. that's not quite as straight forward as it might seem especially since providing any sort of data encryption in this country is illegal unless the authorities have pre-assessed it and have the relevant decryption technology at their own disposal.

This will add quite seriously to the development costs. The second slight problem would relate to the inevitable issues that would come from equipment failure. If the equipment were to be damaged or the data rendered unusable during the accident then retrieving the essential information could prove problematic.

 

[HOOK]

it would be like any other anti theft device,you tell your insurer its got super duper alarm clutch claw disc lok big dog etc, they say ta very much but it makes no difference to your premium.have vehicle stolen with your prefered security device not fitted or broken at the time. sorry sir we aint payin.dont tell em about additional device then try and claim for damage caused by scrote trying to remove it, sorry sir you didnt tell us about that

 

[tonyfg]

I prefer the insure the driver not the car, think that's how it works in Germany or somewhere, if you drive you need to be an insured driver

Thats exactly how learner drivers in UK have to be insured now. Same premium irrespective of what car (up to group 13).They are insured rather than the vehicle (which has to be insured normally). Prob paving the way for all insurance to be that way. Sounds ok to me. Bit like motor traders insurance I suppose
T

 

[khaos]

A crap idea. They then know where you are and how fast you are going. They could refuse to pay out on greenlanes. Say you were parked in the pub car park for 3 hours then crashed on the way home. I'm sure the insurance would use that as proof not to pay out. They already refuse pay outs in any way possible, don't give them an excuse.
You take a trip into the woods for a play. You're not supposed to be there. 2 months later you crash and the company blackmails you because they know where you were 2 months ago and claim that your crash was caused by damage you did in the woods. Where does that leave you? You can't argue because you were doing something illegal.

 

[khaos]

Thats exactly how learner drivers in UK have to be insured now. Same premium irrespective of what car (up to group 13).They are insured rather than the vehicle (which has to be insured normally). Prob paving the way for all insurance to be that way. Sounds ok to me. Bit like motor traders insurance I suppose
T

Not true... after all, i was one a couple of months ago. You have your own insurance but it is only for one car and you have to state the car when buying it. I looked for a policy to drive any car and it didn't exist. You would have to take out a new policy for each car.

 

[matwest904q]

Khaos - I see your point but , if the system only saved information an hour at a time on a rolling basis then it can't incriminate you for something you've done in the past. So unless you were doing something illegal in the hour leading upto a crash then you've nothing to worry about.

 

[matwest904q]

An hour was just an example, there's no reason you couldn't set it to 15 minutes etc.