Big Brother coming soon to your car?
The other day a segment on CBS Morning News showed how bad guys could control someone’s automobile by hacking into auto-monitoring devices.
In one demonstration, a computer genius in the back seat took over the steering wheel and drove the car into a ditch.
I’m a well-known technical illiterate and I had never heard of auto-monitoring devices. What the heck are those?
The bride, of course, knew all about them.
She pays attention to commercials and learned long ago that some insurance companies, in this case Progressive, offer a discount to drivers who install monitors.
An article in Forbes magazine said Progressive offered to install “user-based” devices to monitor how often you brake hard, how many miles you drive a day and how often you drive between midnight and 4 a.m., the most dangerous time to be on the road.
A State Farm spokesman said of the discounts available under that company’s Drive Safe and Save program, “Safer drivers should pay less.” It’s an argument few could dispute and, in fact, has been a part of auto insurance policies since the first Ford rambled out of the factory.
Several companies employ GPS technology to track drivers and that has become a concern of privacy advocates, who fear that companies might use technology to monitor more than how far you drive and how fast you do it.
Two California companies, PrivacyAdvocates and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, issued a statement opposing the systems’ potential for abuse, noting that cars already have a device telling how far one drives. It’s called an odometer.
Insurance companies insist they are not in the policing business. They do not monitor how fast you drive – my greatest vice since I first got behind the wheel – nor your location, a prime concern of privacy advocates.
Randall Stross, a New York Times reporter, installed an Allstate Drivewise device in his car, under the dashboard, and was impressed by how unobtrusive it was. But then he offered another potential pitfall.
He noted that the data on the device could be used in a post-accident investigation or litigation.
“I wonder how innocuous it would all look in court in the hands of a plaintiff who has sued me,” he wrote.
The devices are not available everywhere, but an auto consultant with A.T. Kearney said that where they are available the “better drivers” are having them installed and lowering their insurance rates by 10 percent or more.
He believed that in a few years they will become commonplace and those drivers who say no may be considered a bad insurance risk – privacy concerns or no.
Contact Bob Bestler at bestler6@tds.net.
This story was originally published August 5, 2016 at 9:57 AM with the headline "Big Brother coming soon to your car?."