Uconnect and insurance driving apps

[Volt0]

If you, or a passenger, switches apps ( Waze to OnX or GasBuddy ), or marks a hazard on the shoulder ( Waze ), do the insurance driving apps mark that as distracted driving? What if the interaction is through UConnect? And switching to Spotify, or using the steering wheel controls to change station/playlist, volume, …; am curious to find the best practices, but not finding a ton of info online.

what about Bluetooth devices, and/or WiFi tethered devices?

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[Mr._Bill]

You would need to contact the Insurance Company providing the App and ask them.

Android Auto is provided to allow you to use phone features through the head unit without touching the phone. This reduces distracted driving to some degree. In many states it is illegal for the driver to have the phone in their hands while driving.

 

[HooliganActual]

I have a question for those "in the know" related to this topic, tangentially: Generally, how much do the insurance apps or plug-ins actually save you on your insurance?

I ask because there is a recent thread talking about how to disconnect GPS and all of the vehicle data tracking/sending features and there is a lot of concern expressed about "Big Brother" knowing your comings and goings. While people who give this information readily to their insurance company may not have a general concern about "Big Brother" tracking them, I can only wonder how much the actual savings are.

Obviously insurer, location, driver habits, driver record all play into this, but for anyone who actually participates in these programs with their insurer, are we talking a 50% reduction in their rates or $5/month?

Generally curious as it's not anything I've ever looked in to.

 

[MaximusTX]

I had one on my phone but I ultimately removed it because it could never tell if I was a passenger or a driver and I would constantly get dinged for distracted driving when I was a passenger and I would have to go back and explain that I was a passenger. If I remember correctly it would also ding for Bluetooth calling or anything even using the android auto. I remember trying not to doing anything while driving and setting everything up before driving. Where I lived they are doing construction on the freeway and had everything moved onto the frontage roads so you would have to go from 0-75mph as fast as you can or risk getting hit so I would get dinged for excessive speed. When I contacted the Insurance Company about the issues with the App they pretty much said there was nothing they could do about it so I just unenrolled from the program.

 

[MaximusTX]

I have a question for those "in the know" related to this topic, tangentially: Generally, how much do the insurance apps or plug-ins actually save you on your insurance?

I ask because there is a recent thread talking about how to disconnect GPS and all of the vehicle data tracking/sending features and there is a lot of concern expressed about "Big Brother" knowing your comings and goings. While people who give this information readily to their insurance company may not have a general concern about "Big Brother" tracking them, I can only wonder how much the actual savings are.

Obviously insurer, location, driver habits, driver record all play into this, but for anyone who actually participates in these programs with their insurer, are we talking a 50% reduction in their rates or $5/month?

Generally curious as it's not anything I've ever looked in to.

Initially when I unenrolled mine went up $10 a month but now it is static and stays the same. If I stayed in the program it would be re-evaluated after 12 months and then my insurance could either go up or down based on my driving habits.

 

[HooliganActual]

I had one on my phone but I ultimately removed it because it could never tell if I was a passenger or a driver and I would constantly get dinged for distracted driving when I was a passenger and I would have to go back and explain that I was a passenger. If I remember correctly it would also ding for Bluetooth calling or anything even using the android auto. I remember trying not to doing anything while driving and setting everything up before driving. Where I lived they are doing construction on the freeway and had everything moved onto the frontage roads so you would have to go from 0-75mph as fast as you can or risk getting hit so I would get dinged for excessive speed. When I contacted the Insurance Company about the issues with the App they pretty much said there was nothing they could do about it so I just unenrolled from the program.

Initially when I unenrolled mine went up $10 a month but now it is static and stays the same. If I stayed in the program it would be re-evaluated after 12 months and then my insurance could either go up or down based on my driving habits.

Yeah, it just seems, like so many other things in life, that it is wolf in sheep's clothing. Right now I am at the mercy of the insurance company and they can raise my premiums at will (in addition to any claims or whatever actual reason they may have); but if giving them insight into my actual driving habits allows them to make uninformed judgements (as @MaximusTX expressed) that are to their benefit...and if I'm lucky...really lucky...and the gods are smiling down on me...and the stars align...then they re-evaluate my driving habits after a year and maybe drop my rates by $10/month.

It seems like a lot of effort/angst/etc. on my part in the hopes that they will grace me with the program's benefit. If that is really what it amounts to, $10/month, it seems worth $10/month to be able to exceed a speed limit when entering an on ramp, or change the radio station, or whatever the system picks up as "distracted".

It's kind of like the saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." The insurance companies already charge you based on an assumption of how you drive; having them on a ride along only let's them see you are worse than they assumed..

LOL

 

[Volt0]

I have a question for those "in the know" related to this topic, tangentially: Generally, how much do the insurance apps or plug-ins actually save you on your insurance?

I ask because there is a recent thread talking about how to disconnect GPS and all of the vehicle data tracking/sending features and there is a lot of concern expressed about "Big Brother" knowing your comings and goings. While people who give this information readily to their insurance company may not have a general concern about "Big Brother" tracking them, I can only wonder how much the actual savings are.

Obviously insurer, location, driver habits, driver record all play into this, but for anyone who actually participates in these programs with their insurer, are we talking a 50% reduction in their rates or $5/month?

Generally curious as it's not anything I've ever looked in to.

I’ll reconfirm, but I think American Family told me “ up to 20% per driver “; we have 3 vehicles with full coverage and a moderate deductible. I’m also trying to figure out if our real savings would exceed any data expenses on the phone.

 

[Volt0]

I had one on my phone but I ultimately removed it because it could never tell if I was a passenger or a driver and I would constantly get dinged for distracted driving when I was a passenger and I would have to go back and explain that I was a passenger. If I remember correctly it would also ding for Bluetooth calling or anything even using the android auto. I remember trying not to doing anything while driving and setting everything up before driving. Where I lived they are doing construction on the freeway and had everything moved onto the frontage roads so you would have to go from 0-75mph as fast as you can or risk getting hit so I would get dinged for excessive speed. When I contacted the Insurance Company about the issues with the App they pretty much said there was nothing they could do about it so I just unenrolled from the program.

For my iPhone and app combo, it didn’t mark anything for some general Waze stuff ( car still there? Yes/no ). When my wife and I go somewhere distant, we usually go about half way and then the passenger takes the driver’s phone and plugs in a destination - this is the kind of scenario that I’m concerned with getting dinged on.

 

[HooliganActual]

I’ll reconfirm, but I think American Family told me “ up to 20% per driver “; we have 3 vehicles with full coverage and a moderate deductible. I’m also trying to figure out if our real savings would exceed any data expenses on the phone.

Thanks. I am really curious if the juice is worth the squeeze. If you don't mind, post any conclusions of what you figure out in this thread as you progress. I'd love to know if the savings are anecdotal, i.e. just what the insurance companies say they are offering but isn't actually attainable, or if their are some real world savings less costs such as the data rates, etc.

I don't want to say I am skeptical but as I always tell people, "I am a realist" which, translated, means "I am an optimist with prior experience". I am dubious of things that are too good to be true, so I would love to hear people's real world application and experience.

 

[Volt0]

Update: from what I can tell with American Family, you can pick and choose which trips you’ll allow it to record, simply by having the app open ( or not ). <-- incorrect

Edit: So, for the app to record, location services must be set to "Always On". You can either adjust this setting ( to record or not record ), or navigate into the app and select your actions ( passenger, cycling, ... ) and it's a PITA. Will double this post near the end for those watching.

 

[Rocksride]

I have the USAA app and it saved me 30% about $330 six months for 3 vehicles. Bad part you cannot use hands free or even touch your phone. Progressive has an app and a plug in and you can use hands free.

 

[HooliganActual]

I have the USAA app and it saved me 30% about $330 six months for 3 vehicles. Bad part you cannot use hands free or even touch your phone. Progressive has an app and a plug in and you can use hands free.

So many questions...LOL

1. Can you use the Uconnect system without getting dinged?
2. Can you use the Uconnect system if it is in CarPlay or Android Auto to do something simple, say with the radio?
3. Is the plug-in a device that goes into the OBD2 port? Wondering if it interferes with a Tazer I guess
4. You say that it is an app and a plug in. Is that either/or or are both running/communicating simultaneously?
5. What happens if your passenger is interacting with the Uconnect or controls?

There's probably more questions but those are top of mind.

P.S. I realize that each company's app/plug-in/rules/parameters will likely operate somewhat differently but I figure that they all must be in the same ballpark

 

[Capngeo]

Insurance companies just suck! I have commercial vehicles, and thus commercial insurance. A few weeks ago I was minding my own business in the center lane, driving at the speed limit, when suddenly out of the far right (slow) lane a car cuts across my bow to turn left into a shopping center. Being a commercial driver (CDL Class A) with several million miles, and 40+ years of accident and ticket free driving, I KNOW where every car is around my rig at all times.

I knew the follow whom I passed a while back (who was traveling well below the speed limit in the fast lane causing a center lane pass) was at least 3+ car lengths behind me, I started evasive action to avoid t-boning the fellow who cut me off, by braking and merging left. The asshat behind had accelerated alongside of me then turned hard right into the side of my trailer.

We stopped and exchanged info, but he refused to wait on Law Enforcement (I waited). The LEO didn't write me a ticket, said it wasn't my fault.

3 weeks later I get served with a lawsuit for $1,000,000.00 for "grievous bodily injury" (The dude who hit me was totally uninjured, and the "collision" which was side-on at a closure speed of a fraction of a mile an hour).....MY INSURANCE COMPANY SAID IT WAS MY FAULT! Passed that to Lexis-Nexis who now has me listed as an "unsafe driver".

It adds up to insurance fraud on the part of the others'... $500 car side impact after acceleration, leaving the scene, absolutely no injuries on scene, then a claim to the limit of my policy from Dooey, Scroom, and Howe (based out of Miami); a notorious ambulance-chasing injury attorney.... AND MY INSURANCE COMPANY FOLDS!

End result: My insurance will go up $10k/yr for the next ten years, I'll have trouble getting even a quote from another company, and I have ZERO options of fighting the outcome.

Insurance Companies Just Suck!

/RANT

 

[HooliganActual]

Insurance companies just suck! I have commercial vehicles, and thus commercial insurance. A few weeks ago I was minding my own business in the center lane, driving at the speed limit, when suddenly out of the far right (slow) lane a car cuts across my bow to turn left into a shopping center. Being a commercial driver (CDL Class A) with several million miles, and 40+ years of accident and ticket free driving, I KNOW where every car is around my rig at all times.

I knew the follow whom I passed a while back (who was traveling well below the speed limit in the fast lane causing a center lane pass) was at least 3+ car lengths behind me, I started evasive action to avoid t-boning the fellow who cut me off, by braking and merging left. The asshat behind had accelerated alongside of me then turned hard right into the side of my trailer.

We stopped and exchanged info, but he refused to wait on Law Enforcement (I waited). The LEO didn't write me a ticket, said it wasn't my fault.

3 weeks later I get served with a lawsuit for $1,000,000.00 for "grievous bodily injury" (The dude who hit me was totally uninjured, and the "collision" which was side-on at a closure speed of a fraction of a mile an hour).....MY INSURANCE COMPANY SAID IT WAS MY FAULT! Passed that to Lexis-Nexis who now has me listed as an "unsafe driver".

It adds up to insurance fraud on the part of the others'... $500 car side impact after acceleration, leaving the scene, absolutely no injuries on scene, then a claim to the limit of my policy from Dooey, Scroom, and Howe (based out of Miami); a notorious ambulance-chasing injury attorney.... AND MY INSURANCE COMPANY FOLDS!

End result: My insurance will go up $10k/yr for the next ten years, I'll have trouble getting even a quote from another company, and I have ZERO options of fighting the outcome.

Insurance Companies Just Suck!

/RANT

Now see, this is where it would be nice if using one of these insurance tracking apps/plug-ins would "protect" the insured by showing to a court that the insured wasn't at fault. Maybe they do or can but it would be nice to know. Conveniently, the insurance companies don't advertise how they can "protect" you.

Honestly, it's stories like this that really make me consider getting the dashcam. I hear lots of stories how those devices get people out of jams but none about the insurance company trackers...

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

At the beginning of The Great Corporate Gouging of the American people in 2021, Geico raised my rates to levels I haven’t seen since my 20s. I have a perfect driving record and I’m entering the down slope of age related risk. I don’t have any other issues with Geico. They’ve always been good to me and no one, even USAA couldn’t touch their rates in my experience.

I called my agent, who’s been generally really good to me to see what we could do. The short answer is nothing because these are general rate increases. But apparently Geico is now doing this dongle shit too. Personally and professionally (as a tech guy, who understands the sociopathic mentality of the tech industry)I find this whole concept to just be the latest of increasing encroachments into our personal space and the theft and financialization of our personal information by corporations, big tech and the government. It’s particularly Orwellian, because like a lot of people I almost got captured by this by first having my rate increased and then considering giving up more of my personal privacy and autonomy to get it a little of that money back.

Anyway, that rant isn’t the point. I asked a question to my agent that stopped the whole dongle pitch dead in its tracks. I asked about off roading. What happens when I’m spinning tires on a trail or stopping and starting quickly because I’m wheeling? I don’t pretend to know the conops of these things, like how and when can you turn them off or if can you? My agent told me that I absolutely do not want to participate in this program if I off road at all. That it will f&%k up my rates. I would seriously ask those questions before participating in one of these programs.

I’ll tell you another reason not to participate. You’re at the mercy of the quality or lack there of of some software engineers code. How the data gets parsed, what assumptions are baked into the algorithms, the thresholds for what is considered unsafe driving, how the data is aggregated and simple bugs all contribute to how well (accurately) the system works. My overall sense having worked in tech as a software engineer, architect and in management is that the industry has major bias problems, a cloistered insular workforce, a dangerous lack of diversity, a general “fuck em” attitude and it’s people work under constant downward pressure over schedule and cost. The requirement for constant market differentiation means new features, have to be added and the requirement for decreasing costs means testing is constantly being cut. The value of user data itself also means that no software development entity is free from the conflict between competing customers, the consumers and the various groups (internal or external), that want their data.

The natural result is what I’ve observed over the years within the industry and as a consumer, precipitous decline in quality and general inshitification of all tech. “AI”, and if it’s not been integrated into these insurance dongle programs, it soon will be will make this worse. “AI” is already starting to pan out the obvious way it would, not as some rise of the machines apocalypse, but as another shiny object hype bubble that mostly produces corporate manipulated garbage that floods the zone with noise and makes life more, not less difficult. AI determining whether or not you’re a safe driver is going to be a disaster and because corporations, have all decided it’s Christ risen, you’ll find it difficult if not impossible to refute its “hallucinations,” especially when the agent you’re taking to is also AI. Useful customer service, already rare, will cease to exist altogether.

My instinct, even as or maybe especially as an insider is to run in the opposite direction. To remove, to the greatest extent possible, my reliance on software in as many facets of my life as possible, especially when it’s not really clear who is deriving the actual utility from it, the customer or the corporation.

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