Today'Black box' earns cheap insurance
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Article RatingYou know those black boxes that provide information about what happens in an airplane? Well, they may be coming to your car.
Some people actually want them.
For instance, The Associated Press tells the story of Jacob Sevlie of Bloomington, Minn. He signed on for an electronic monitor the size of a matchbook to track his driving time and behavior. The auto data recorder can be disconnected from the car and hooked up to a computer, giving his auto insurer a picture of his driving habits.
For Sevlie, using the gadget in a pilot project by his insurer, Progressive Corp., is supposed to lead to a 15 percent rate discount when the program is officially launched.
But don't think this is just one company involved in the monitoring game. Other insurers here and abroad are trying out the devices. And if one company finds it to be good for business, all the others are sure to follow.
In the meantime, federal safety officials last month called on all auto manufacturers to install these kind of devices in vehicles. The cost of that undoubtedly would be added to the price of the car or truck.
From the standpoint of a driver who doesn't speed, stomp on the brakes too much or cut in and out of traffic a whole lot, it sounds like a good deal.
We're not sure how this device would pick up tailgaters, but all others who use their vehicles as if they were, indeed, speed weapons could find themselves facing totally unaffordable insurance rates to make up for all the discounts for the good drivers.
That ought to slow down America on the highways.
But other concerns exist. In the AP story, Sevlie admits he wouldn't want the device if it tracks where he goes. "That would scare me," he says.
It does smack of another leap forward into big brotherism, whether or not the feds make it the law.
Now the question that arises concerning technology is how to limit it so that those in power or in the driver's seat with you, in this case, can't abuse the continuing strides being made.
So the thought for today is that a line has to be drawn — and people must be aware of the need for one. Otherwise, the emphasis on safety as well as saving money could be used for wrongful acts and endanger individual rights and privacy.
