Trends in Automotive Insurance

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My auto insurance company questions everything. I think I have a $100 debatable policy. Regardless, the auto insurance business will have another excuse to raise your rates as high-tech comes to the industry.

Ideally, the insurance business would like to charge you by the exact mileage that you drive. To this end, several experimental programs have been started in the European Union, North America and Japan. On some of their customers' vehicles, automobile insurance businesses have installed devices that read speed and mileage from the car's OnBoard diagnostic port. Other customers have GPS systems that relay their driving habits back to the insurance company. (One East European country is relying on a low tech method of Nagging-Mother-In-Law-in-the-Backseat.)

Of course, some people are questioning the privacy aspects of these pilot programs. I don't know why. If you've ever applied for auto insurance, they end up knowing more about you than the NSA. So what if a business records your travel history? As long as they don't share it with the taxman, what's the worry? We know that will never happen {wink}{wink}.

What's not clear is whether this will lower rates for safe drivers or raise premiums for everyone because of the fancy new gadgets. At least, we won't need a bigger car with Big Brother driving with us. Let's see what the next five years bring.