What Every Driver Needs to Know about Progressive Snapshot. For the past six months, I signed up to participate in Progressive’s Snapshot Discount program, which offers a device that you attach to your car that transmits data about your driving activity. The results and the impact of the Snapshot might surprise you. I figured why not try it out and see if the discounts are as good. Progressive Snapshot Program Can Increase Your Rate: PROGRESSIVE. I just did 6 months snapshot and my rate increase 32$. Progressive Snapshot Program Can Increase.I was in a rush purchasing? I figured even with my driving behavior, a few percent off would be worth the experiment. I was conflicted because then I was now assigning a price for my privacy ? You’ll see towards the end of this post. After the first week of owning my Snapshot device, I grew to strongly dislike it. However, the idea of having access to my driving activity did pique my curiosity. It means they just got ratted out to Progressive for slowing down just a little too fast. What is the Progressive Snapshot Device? The Snapshot device is a small module that you plug into your On- Board Diagnostics Type 2 (OBD- II) port on your car. The OBD- II system allows automotive technicians to diagnose vehicle activities and has access to practically every sub- system on your car: engine, drivetrain, brakes, transmission, electronics — you name it, it can be acquired through OBD- II. The Snapshot device has a lot of electronics packed in its 2. It has a memory chip, cellular radio and a GPS radio that communicates with satellites for location tracking. You can inspect the patent to see what it has under the hood. The Snapshot device continuously streams your vehicle. Progressive MyRate hackable? Progressive Insurance. For my device, it has a quad- band GSM module (datasheet), which makes sense considering Progressive inked a deal with AT& T to provide data service for it. On Progressive. This is by choice, not by physical limitations.
It is no different from a cellphone that is connected through the AT& T network. We may never know, but it is safe to say that in principle, they can track all data. Since I originally joined, they updated. Of special note, this information is. Only customers can see this information once they are authenticated. Their FAQs on the program definitely paint a rosier picture, too. Also, the terms and conditions of the Snapshot Discount program are nowhere to be found until you agree to them. But, I’ll save you the time hunting for it on their site (since it’s not shown to non- customers). Here is a direct link to the Snapshot Terms & Conditions. Maybe if I can get my hands on one of those Stingray scanners, I could intercept the cellular data being passed over the air. I digress. How Progressive Snapshot Penalizes You. The Snapshot device appears to only snitch on you with two types of data. First is the reduction of speed (braking), which I. Second is the time of day, which is acquired the moment you start your car. Whether or not the vehicle is in motion, data is logged. In theory, drag racing wouldn. But, as you rapidly decelerate, you would. When your tires are spinning, they spin at a higher rate of speed than the vehicle and once they catch traction, they rapidly slow down. To the Snapshot device, this appears like an abrupt braking, even without the brake pedal pressed. This is because the vehicle speed sensor is often located in the transmission, so if the tires are spinning, so is the driveshaft. Thus why your speedometer would show you. Driving in an urban city . After I understood this threshold, I avoided slowing down faster than 1. MPH per second, and would watch my speedometer compulsively. This worked effectively to curb my hard brakes. Supporting my rationale for why I believe 7. MPH per second (1. The constant that remains the same is the length of roadway between you and a given threat (such as new vehicles entering the roadway). One could understand that in the city, you. But on the highway, threats can be more prolific and less predictable (e. But the real- world impact is that you may occasionally . However, I can give a slight nod to the conjecture. Racking up more miles is the easiest, controllable factor to beat the system. The hard brake- to- mile ratio is really what they. For a majority of people, this won. Hypothetically, if you were going faster than the posted speed limit at the time of a claim, how do you think that will fare in your defense? This concern goes both ways; you can use the data to support your claim if you were driving safely. The spirit of this policy is that it. That data is only for me and my insurance company. It. The data can be incredibly useful in the event you are wrongfully accused of a crime. This man in Cleveland was found innocent of murder because of the data collected with his Progressive Snapshot. Snapshot is a Behavior Modification Tool. After my six month use of Snapshot, I. It took me roughly a couple of months to retrain my driving behavior. And it worked. After a few months, I no longer consciously determine if my Snapshot device will ding me for slowing down because now I slow down earlier than normal. The negative stimulus is the annoying beep. The positive stimulus is the prospect of a discount. This is problematic because Progressive puts drivers in a 3. That was how much my privacy was worth. Following my six- month period, I earned a 1. For you mathematicians, you might have noticed that my percentage discount is not based on the same principal amount. This signaled to me that I should dig deeper. Did I really ? I read my Declarations pages to see the accounting. My rates increased. I know there can be multiple factors for premium increases, but the correlation discomforts me. As my vehicle depreciates, I can only presume that premiums decrease accordingly. Not so, indicates Progressive. One dollar shy of my discount of $9. In full disclosure, I receive more discounts, but this is my. The discounts stayed the same. This isn’t published in their marketing materials, so you’ll know what to expect with the Snapshot program. Discounts from the Snapshot Program. So, I took it upon myself to export the data from my account (not easy) and do a little analysis in Excel. All data is measured from the six months between January and June. Key findings. Eventually, I figured it out. At least it was for me. Had I known the real impact of each hard brake, I would be even more intentional about avoiding them. Now (you and) I know better, so we can more easily adapt to these driving monitoring devices. I do have one prevailing concern. Currently, these devices are voluntary. Progressive and State Farm offer potential discounts for using them. I anticipate that the ROI of this data is far more valuable than what insurance companies let on through discounting. I worry that in the not- too- distant future, they will be mandatory and drivers will be penalized for opting out of their monitoring. For privacy advocates out there, this system is disturbing. Especially since all the National Security Agency (NSA) controversies involving. Armed with rubber- stamped . Review the patent here!)Overall, the intent of the Snapshot program accomplished its stated mission. It helped me become a safer driver. These insights cater to the very human psychology to encourage and positively reward good behavior. I’d also like to know precisely what types of data are being collected, retained or discarded. Even if it was technical, I would appreciate that over vague summaries. Otherwise, pass up on the tempting offer to sell your privacy for a dollar. I leave you with my final thought on the Progressive Snapshot: The feeling of unplugging my Snapshot from Progressive feels like a dog getting its collar removed.— Joe Manna (@Joe. Manna) June 2. 1, 2. This post is a part of my 6. Read more about #6. DOB. Photo credit: robertnelson.
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