I'm sure they have acceptable levels of brake slamming and increased acceleration thresholds to account for incidents you cannot control that happen in day to day traffic.

I work in the auto insurance industry (not for Liberty Mutual) and it is only a method to refine your rate based on you and how you drive, instead of considering everyone as the same type of driver. Before tools like this existed, you could only be rated on your age/sex/marital status/location and prior tickets and claims that you had. So every driver is basically given the same rate if they have matching criteria, while one of them could be a much higher risk than the other and likewise should pay more.

Who this will benefit is the average soccer mom or soccer dad who is a patient & careful driver who doesn't drive a lot and doesn't drive in areas known for accidents. With the market getting so competitive, additional personalized metrics are needed to get someone the exact rate that they deserve.

It's funny you mention this. I started my BRZ 3 weeks after my other two cars for that very reason. I had a "high speed touring" day on a 1.8 road course track here in Oklahoma and I knew if I had this thing in during a track day that I would have 300 events in one day and would eliminate any ability to get further discounts. So I waited until after this day to put the device in.

Thought about putting one of these devices in my car for the discount Progressive offers.

However the monthly weekend drives that I do with a local car enthusiast group + my buds on occasion made me think twice.

The smart geniuses at LM are not monitoring me when they decided to not renew my home ins. Supposedly, 'new tech' insights says my house is located in a brush fire danger area that is not compatible with LM's risk assessment. So I promptly took my auto ins from them and overall has a lower home, auto ins bill as well.

I have paid LM $33k+ in home ins premium over 19 yrs plus $?k in auto ins premiums with 0.0 claims in at least the last 10 years. There have not been a brush fire within miles of where I am in the last 30+ years.

As a lifer in the IT world, using tech alone without the human intervention is pure stupidity. Perhaps one needs to look at rear-end accidents caused by slow drivers or drivers neglecting to accelerate appropriately.

My mom put a progressive monitor in her camry for awhile. Because it would beep at her even during a normal braking situation, she changed her braking habits and instead it made her driving way more erratic, shes now pumping the brakes way earlier than her intended stop. It probably drives people crazy if they get behind her car.

No thanks I don't need a leash.

Plus being an "old timer" my ins isn't that much anyway.

You loved Brad. Then you totaled him.

I always saw these as a way to monitor you initially for a discount, track your driving habits, and then deny you in the future if something happened even remotely linked to your driving happened.


Even if it was ever offered I wouldn't want a snapshot of my personal driving habits on file. Its just like your cars "black box" that allow them to see the last few seconds of driving if you have an accident or warranty claim.


Not to say its a bad thing or not necessary in some instances, just that I personally want as little on file as possible.

I figured that for a period of 90 days in the late fall and winter, I could probably change my driving habits and drive like grandma. At least I'll some get credit for doing it. Unfortunately, the wife doesn't subscribe to that theory and she has accumulated over twice as many braking and acceleration events as I have. I'm half way though and can't wait for it to be over.

ok so i had one of these in my BRZ for accident forgiveness with Safeco. The odb2 unit never made any noises at me or indicated an event occured. i'd have to wait for the unit to submit data so i could see it online. Now just like the OP it records the same things. On average i'd drive 300-400 miles per week and average 5-10 events in a week. the worst was 19 events in a week where i drove 900 miles. My driver rating never went lower than 4/5 and at the end of my 126 days, finished with a driving score of 4.85/5.

I did not alter my driving habbits other than a bit slower start out of first, i continued to enjoy back road spirited drives @soulreapersteve ;) and the two odd weekends i knew i was going to speed i took the odb2 reader out. if the insurance company complained i was going to say i brought the car into the shop to do repairs and they had to remove the unit to do diagnostics.

Sorry to dig up this old thread, but I had a chance to have a conversation with someone who works at CAA (president level) - what he told me was this:

According to regulations, insurers cannot increase our individual rates based on the data obtained from these types of OBD readers.

HOWEVER - what they can do, is use the data from a specific segment of users (i.e. any BRZ/FRS drivers who did opt-in to the program) and use that data to draw conclusions about the entire population of FRS/BRZ drivers.
As a result, even if you don't see an immediate increase in your rates as an individual, over time, the data from these readers (which will likely reveal the average FRS/BRZ driver to be a bit more aggressive on accelerating, turning, and braking) will likely lead to an adjustment of the overall rates for all drivers of those cars.

Guess which way the adjustment will probably go....

I'm not sure about the accuracy of that.. Yes I understand you said he's president level, but come on. To me, it's more fair to rate me based on my data versus rating me based on the average data. I think I drive safer/wiser than average so that wouldn't be helping me...now that I said that, it's probably because they can make more money that way since everyone drives bad.

I'm going to be one of the tech leads when my insurance company, who is also my employer, begins using these obd2 reporter devices. If I remember, I will report back what info I learn.

I was also under the belief that these devices couldn't be used to increase your personal rates, only lower them.