Automakers are sharing driving data with data brokers and insurance companies!

[thewayne]

A quote from the Slashdot summary:
"Kenn Dahl says he has always been a careful driver. The owner of a software company near Seattle, he drives a leased Chevrolet Bolt. He's never been responsible for an accident. So Mr. Dahl, 65, was surprised in 2022 when the cost of his car insurance jumped by 21 percent. Quotes from other insurance companies were also high. One insurance agent told him his LexisNexis report was a factor. LexisNexis is a New York-based global data broker with a "Risk Solutions" division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets. Upon Mr. Dahl's request, LexisNexis sent him a 258-page "consumer disclosure report," which it must provide per the Fair Credit Reporting Act. What it contained stunned him: more than 130 pages detailing each time he or his wife had driven the Bolt over the previous six months. It included the dates of 640 trips, their start and end times, the distance driven and an accounting of any speeding, hard braking or sharp accelerations. The only thing it didn't have is where they had driven the car. On a Thursday morning in June for example, the car had been driven 7.33 miles in 18 minutes; there had been two rapid accelerations and two incidents of hard braking."

So now it doesn't matter that you're accident-free, it matters what an algorithm thinks of your driving patterns.

The one thing that is certain is that data brokers have far too much power, and I want to make sure that I can disconnect any cellular connection on my next car!

At this time, the article is not behind a paywall, though that could change:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/technology/carmakers-driver-tracking-insurance.html

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/03/11/2342228/automakers-are-sharing-consumers-driving-behavior-with-insurance-companies

Comments

[murakozi]

That's pretty worrisome. The way people drive in this area, it's not unusual to have to suddenly hit the brakes. There've been times when someone doing something stupid has caused my Subaru's Eyesight system to start beeping and warning.

'Course, Eyesight has also done that when I'm pulling into a parking space at home at a time when strong winds made the hedge in front of the parking spaces wave around.

[thewayne]

Exactly!  In Phoenix, if you're not doing rapid acceleration and braking, YOU are the traffic hazard!  I also have a Subaru with Eyesight, wonderful system - but not absolutely foolproof.

[murakozi]

It took me a little while to figure out what it was that'd set it off when I was parking. Just barely creeping in before coming to a stop, with my foot on the brake and the speedometer literally reads zero, yet the barely moving dense hedge makes Eyesight start beeping and give a pre-collision warning.

[thewayne]

A friend of mine has a high-performance Toyota Supra and has a similar problem with a drainage ditch in front of his driveway.  He has to temporarily disengage it to pull out!  Can't say I've seen a similar problem with hedges with my Eyesight, but it doesn't like 'road snakes'.  What year is yours?  Mine's a '15.  My wifes is a '19, I can't recall if she has a similar problem with road snake alerts.  I think '15 was the first year for Eyesight, maybe first year in Crosstrek?

[murakozi]

Mine's a 2019. I think it was the first year Eyesight was standard in the Forester instead of being an option.

[thewayne]

My wife's is an Outback.  I don't know if my '15 Crosstrek it was standard, it was a dealer service lend vehicle, so it was somewhat spiffed up.  I do absolutely love the system, though!  It's wonderful when stuck on a slow freeway!  Though I had to have the camera replaced once: had a windshield replaced and when the guy came out to recalibrate the system, one of the cameras failed.  That was a $2500ish sticker shock!  I kept the failed unit, I intend to connect a RaspberryPi to it some day and see if I can do anything with it.

[kaishin108]

Our Subaru has that too, jeez.

[thewayne]

Phoenix is just a crazy fast city.  If you're not doing 70 on the freeways, you're pretty much obstructing the traffic flow.

[kaishin108]

I can imagine as even here is kind of like that.

[garote]

Ugh. I hope I never, ever have to buy one of these f*(#@& wired-in cars in my life, though I suppose at some point having the old ones on the road will just be declared illegal or something.

I'm a luddite when it comes to assistive car gadgets. The only camera I'd consider is an after-market one that records the last hour of what I see around me, in a loop, with a timestamp, and writes over anything older, just to prove what happened in a potential accident. No wifi, no cellular, no backup screen, don't particularly need bluetooth, definitely no stupid thing beeping or yanking the steering wheel around for me when it thinks I'm wandering over a lane, and the thing better not say a f#*@(% word to me for any reason...

Also, it better stay off my lawn!

[disneydream06]

A very good excuse to drive an old car. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon

[moxie_man]

I miss my previous vehicle, an '05 Impala. I'd still be driving it if mechanic could have found another engine for it. Base model. No bells or whistles, not even annoying anti-lock brakes. If some idiot causes me to lock my brakes I want them to know it as the tires squeal 'cause today's horns are too wimpy to let them know they're stupid. It had the OnStar system, but easily disabled as the unit was in the trunk. Unplug it and no Big Brother tracking you.

Current '12 Honda CRV has too many bells and whistles. Stupid things like "low tire pressure" alert which can be set off in colder weather just due to the temps. Fortunately, it's old enough that companies like in your article can't collect data on my driving habits. It relied on 3G. :)

[silveradept]

More information comes out about the various sensors and systems in our cars and how they are phoning all kinds of people who have no right to that data and should be walloped with privacy violation fines big enough to make them reconsider that kind of data connection and selling. Especially because there's no opt-out of the sensor data being sent.

There's going to be a useful device that will come out that will redirect all those signals to something I am in control of or block them entirely, I'm sure. I just hope it's out and easy to install by the time I have to upgrade my car to a model with those things inside.