State Farm Drive Safe and Save: Thought or experiences?

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  • Clay

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 98.8%
    81   1   0
    Aug 28, 2008
    9,648
    48
    Vigo Co
    I've recently received an invite from State Farm to joint their 'drive safe and save' program.

    For me it would involve putting a blue tooth beacon thingy in my car and then it will communicate with my smart phone to upload data to state farm.

    There is a 5% savings just for signing up, then additional savings depending on how much I drive and how safe I do so.

    Does anyone have any experience with this program?

    Does anyone have any thoughts on it?

    As I start looking into it my first plan would be to have my wife put it in her vehicle. She's a much more conservative drive than I am ;)

    thanks,
    clay
     

    steve0322

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Dec 9, 2015
    319
    18
    Mooresville
    Those things make me nervous. I'd be afraid the insurance company would jack up the rates if they had proof that I was driving over the speed limit. I figure the less they know, the better.
     

    KLB

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    Sep 12, 2011
    23,003
    77
    Porter County
    Seems to be all the rage in the industry. They can kiss my behind. I have no intention of letting an insurance company track everything I do while driving. Where I go, how fast I drive, etc

    What makes a safe driver anyway? Someone who drives the speed limit looking at their phone or everything but the road?
     

    spec4

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Jun 19, 2010
    3,775
    27
    NWI
    Too much big brother. Unless they are sitting in the car with me they have no idea how appropriate my driving habits are. I was with them for years. Rates kept going up. I complained once and they told me they don't negotiate rates. Switched to AAA and saved about $500 a year
     
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    k12lts

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    17   0   0
    Dec 26, 2008
    688
    28
    Jackson County
    I'm not familiar with the State Farm system but I do know something about the Progressive and Safeco systems. It's called usage based rating. Your insurance rate is based on the how you use your car. The Progressive and Safeco systems don't use your cell phone but plug into your OBDII port for 90 days then are sent in and read for a few different parameters to determine your discount. I don't know of any company that will surcharge your rates for bad driving, if they don't like what you do you keep the standard rate.

    They look at time of day, between midnight and 4am is a bad time. Statistics show there are more accidents during those hours.

    They look for hard acceleration and hard braking. Your car monitors that.

    They look at total miles driven. People that drive 30,000 miles per year have more exposure to an accident than people the drive 10,000 miles per year.

    Most systems don't monitor speed. For privacy reasons they don't track your location so they don't know what the speed limit is where you are driving.

    I used the Safeco system on my cars last summer and earned a 12% discount on my rates. The monitoring window was 90 days but I keep the discount as long as I have insurance with them.

    If you drive 600 miles per week in the middle of the night and have to replace your brake pads every 30,000 miles it's probably not for you. Otherwise, I really don't see a downside to it.
     

    dung

    Expert
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Feb 9, 2017
    757
    28
    Charlestwon
    I don't know about state farm either, but my allstate rep didnt really recomend it because with previous customers it gave them a discount up front, but then normally got rid of it after the monitoring session.
     

    Old Dog

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Mar 4, 2016
    1,376
    97
    Central Indiana
    Do you realize that the computer in your vehicle "knows" when you step on the brakes, the gas, your speed, your swerve and bob, when you have your turn signals on, and many other things? Your GPS system knows where you are and the speed limit on that section of road. Even if you don't get a ticket. So if the insurance company doesn't like what they see, your rates will go up or you will be cancelled. Why give them that opportunity? You are giving up your "liberty" for a price reduction. Just remember, anything you "say" can and will be used against you. Oh, and anything over the posted speed limit is speeding if they chose to use it against you, like on the interstate at rush hour when traffic is moving @ 80 in a 55.
     

    Clay

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 98.8%
    81   1   0
    Aug 28, 2008
    9,648
    48
    Vigo Co
    according to the info provided nothing is real time. It has to be linked to your phone and can be set to only DL info when you're connected to wifi. It's literally just a little 'puck' that sits in your car and links to your phone. It's not plugged into the car at all. Using your phone via bluetooth it records acceleration, braking, distance traveled, and speed. Once every renewal you have to send them a picture of your mileage. I thought about using it on one of my cars that I only put about 2000 miles per year on but since it's a newer car I have to pay full rates. I figured that could give me a pretty good discount since I don't drive it often.
     

    KLB

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    Sep 12, 2011
    23,003
    77
    Porter County
    I'm not familiar with the State Farm system but I do know something about the Progressive and Safeco systems. It's called usage based rating. Your insurance rate is based on the how you use your car. The Progressive and Safeco systems don't use your cell phone but plug into your OBDII port for 90 days then are sent in and read for a few different parameters to determine your discount. I don't know of any company that will surcharge your rates for bad driving, if they don't like what you do you keep the standard rate.

    They look at time of day, between midnight and 4am is a bad time. Statistics show there are more accidents during those hours.

    They look for hard acceleration and hard braking. Your car monitors that.

    They look at total miles driven. People that drive 30,000 miles per year have more exposure to an accident than people the drive 10,000 miles per year.

    Most systems don't monitor speed. For privacy reasons they don't track your location so they don't know what the speed limit is where you are driving.

    I used the Safeco system on my cars last summer and earned a 12% discount on my rates. The monitoring window was 90 days but I keep the discount as long as I have insurance with them.

    If you drive 600 miles per week in the middle of the night and have to replace your brake pads every 30,000 miles it's probably not for you. Otherwise, I really don't see a downside to it.
    You might want to look a little more into it. They can and will rates if they feel like it based upon your data.
    https://www.consumeraffairs.com/new...fore-trying-progressives-snapshot-062713.html
     

    PistolBob

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    4   0   0
    Oct 6, 2010
    5,387
    83
    Midwest US
    We both started running it a week ago. Looks like all it does is track how many miles you drive. It only seems to work about 75% of the time. It doesn't connect to your car...just your cell phone. They trust you to manually input your odometer reading. Been with State Farm for almost 40 years....they have jacked us around so much on rate changes with no accidents we're about to dump them for everything and go somewhere else.
     

    k12lts

    Sharpshooter
    Rating - 100%
    17   0   0
    Dec 26, 2008
    688
    28
    Jackson County
    You might want to look a little more into it. They can and will rates if they feel like it based upon your data.
    https://www.consumeraffairs.com/new...fore-trying-progressives-snapshot-062713.html

    It sounds like the person in the article had their rates raised because they got two tickets, not because of any information from the device.

    The state BMV does not report tickets to your insurance company. Companies will run an MVR for all new drivers and new applicants, they don't pull them every year, it's too expensive. They may pull an MVR on a spot check basis or if you've had a couple accidents but they don't look every year. Usually something has to prompt them to take a look.

    The device is not a good fit for everyone. If you are looking for a way to lower your rates and you are a good driver it's just an option.
     

    MarkC

    Master
    Site Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Mar 6, 2016
    2,082
    63
    Mooresville
    Do you realize that the computer in your vehicle "knows" when you step on the brakes, the gas, your speed, your swerve and bob, when you have your turn signals on, and many other things? Your GPS system knows where you are and the speed limit on that section of road. Even if you don't get a ticket. So if the insurance company doesn't like what they see, your rates will go up or you will be cancelled. Why give them that opportunity? You are giving up your "liberty" for a price reduction. Just remember, anything you "say" can and will be used against you. Oh, and anything over the posted speed limit is speeding if they chose to use it against you, like on the interstate at rush hour when traffic is moving @ 80 in a 55.

    As Old Dog notes, you are being tracked right now. The difference is, to get the data from your vehicle's ECM (acceleration, braking, other data) for government to get it, it has to be connected to a computer. Well, unless you're connected to OnStar or a similar service, then your vehicle vendor gets some of the data in real time (airbag deployment and location data, for example). Your in-car GPS would have to be removed and downloaded. Your mobile phone, on the other hand, is constantly connected to the network and unless you turn it completely off, it is tracking you, either through GPS (location services) or mobile connectivity (communicating with cell towers).

    So, my point after all this rambling: You are already being tracked, and tracked a lot. Why would you want to add to it, with minimal benefit (small $$ reduction on your bill) and big potential consequences (huge $$ increase, or even cancellation)?
     

    jkaetz

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Jan 20, 2009
    1,953
    83
    Indianapolis
    Lots of paranoid people. Or do you all just have a guilty conscious? As posted, if you're a good driver you likely don't have anything to worry about. If not, well then don't get it.

    Personally I wouldn't accept anything that connected to the car's OBD system. Too often third party things plugged into the OBD port cause other issues because they third party tools aren't as good or as well tested as the OEM equipment. The state farm device sounds more acceptable, but likely can track more things too. It is likely a GPS based device that sends its information to state farm via the phone app. No real good way to know what it sends. I don't need to save ~$40 for the year enough to jump through more hoops.
     

    MarkC

    Master
    Site Supporter
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Mar 6, 2016
    2,082
    63
    Mooresville
    Lots of paranoid people. Or do you all just have a guilty conscious? As posted, if you're a good driver you likely don't have anything to worry about. If not, well then don't get it...

    Right, just like the nice government official said, if you haven't done anything wrong, then what are you worried about?"

    And I speak from the perspective of being one of those nice government officials for years and years.
     

    eldirector

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    10   0   0
    Apr 29, 2009
    14,677
    113
    Brownsburg, IN
    I already have a wife that tracks my driving habits and gives me feedback. Why would I need this device? To save a couple of bucks?

    Though, I'd be tempted to toss it in the offroad Jeep. They'd never believe an average speed of only 5 MPH for an entire weekend, covering 40 miles, and never leaving a 2-mile radius. Wonder if it has a gyroscope? "Sir, why were you upside down for 30 minutes?"
     

    HoughMade

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    Oct 24, 2012
    35,612
    149
    Valparaiso
    Good drivers sometimes drive 85 mph on the Borman Expressway each morning...if the traffic allows.

    Such good drivers don't need electronic gimmickry narcing on them.
     

    jkaetz

    Master
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Jan 20, 2009
    1,953
    83
    Indianapolis
    Do you post your passwords online, hand out your social security number to anyone, hand out keys to your house?
    Why not? Are you paranoid?
    Connecting your driving history to those items is a bit of a stretch.

    Right, just like the nice government official said, if you haven't done anything wrong, then what are you worried about?"

    And I speak from the perspective of being one of those nice government officials for years and years.
    These programs haven't been around long enough to see if they are beneficial for the customers or not. IMO we are all a bit biased against anything like this and most of us see the potential for abuse. On the other hand, these programs are probably more benign than we give credit for. Think internet tracking for cars. We give google and other sites lots of data for free stuff. If we expand the scope from our individual selves and acknowledge that we aren't as important to the insurance company as we think, we might see that massive amounts of anonymous data showing how real drivers drive on real roads could be used for more things than simply raising your insurance rates. Though I'm sure they wouldn't miss the chance given the opportunity.
     

    Old Dog

    Expert
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Mar 4, 2016
    1,376
    97
    Central Indiana
    " On the other hand, these programs are probably more benign than we give credit for."

    That sounds like the logic that the gun controllers use to convince us that things will still be ok after their next proposal passes. More data is not necessarily a benefit to anyone but the "controllers".
     
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