so where is the subliminal message?

How long before such a device is required by all insurance companies?

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A COMPANY THAT WILL NOT REQUIRE IT....AND THAT COMAPNY WILL BE THE ONE THAT MAKES THE MONEY

Bani-Your link is to a whole page. Can you narrow it down please?

progressive is a communist front.

This is a very common thing in all cars sold in Pakistan. It's called C-TRAK.

If you opt to have this fitted, your insurance rates go way down.... at least in Pakistan... because the car can't be stolen (you can disable your car by making a phone call from anywhere in the world).

Yes, they can tell exactly where you are and the data can be made available to the cops, but so what?

It's a great service to have.

This American system doesn't seem to be an advanced model though... I don't think you can disable your vehicle in case of a crime.... or can you?

Odd. Very odd in fact. I've had auto insurance through Progressive for years now. You'd think I'd have received some sort of mailing or other about this "MyRate" device.

So I called the company. This thing is optional. Not required. Not expected to ever be required. And Judas got it right earlier, if these things go mandatory, Progressive will lose damn near all of its business. Sure as hell they'll lose mine.

But yeah, this looks like more of the beginning of the end for personal freedom to live life as we see fit rather than being forced to live it the way someone else wants. Good thing I'll be dead before this finally happens.

Not required. Not expected to ever be required.

Posted by LetUsReason

Yea, but wait until they start offering huge discounts as incentive. I hate the way insurance companies set policy in this country. That's why we seat-belt and helmet laws and the like.

Most renat-car companies have a form of this-lets them know if you've been speeding.

and new car onboards record something like the last 10-30 seconds of operation.

"progressive is a communist front."

I should have this embroidered on a doily and hung on my wall. It symbolizes the rightie mentality in a nut shell. It's what the nancies and her entire "ilk" believe. If caring about people makes ME a commie, I guess I'm a commie. But it's so sad. herm

Probably some great incentives available. In particular, I have a compact car (most driving) and a pickup truck that doesn't even get 3,000 miles a year. Fortunately, I live in the sticks, so insurance is very cheap. But, if I could get a much-discounted rate on the low-mileage vehicle I would. And, if I were in NY/NJ/CA, where insuring a second limited-use vehicle is obscenely expensive, I'd consider such a gadget.

This American system doesn't seem to be an advanced model though... I don't think you can disable your vehicle in case of a crime.... or can you?

Posted by Tosser at 2008-08-08 06:41 AM | Reply | Flag:

Tosser, disbabling vehicles remotely/electronically is very old technology. I was doing it back in 1992 when we tracked and disabled (triggered a sensor to shut off flow of fuel to the fuel pump). Even the tracking was ancient....land based Loran C (not even GPS).

Insurance companies already attempt to price for high-risk behavior, but do so badly. Just because someone has a sports car doesn't mean he drives more recklessly than a guy in a used pickup truck worth a fourth as much. But the insurance premiums don't reflect that.

Insurers already like to know how much your home is worth, where it is, and whether you have an attractive hazard on your property, and you pay premiums accordingly.

Give me the device, if my premiums will drop. Hundreds of people monitor my driving every day as it is, and they see I'm a safe driver. May as well let my insurance company know it.

this *feels* very 1984'ish...

"But yeah, this looks like more of the beginning of the end for personal freedom to live life as we see fit rather than being forced to live it the way someone else wants."

You view the idea of being responsible for your self, a loss of freedom. Freedom requires responsiblity, losing your self, and your money, in a massless demographic is hardly being free. Cash is also a form of freedom, freedom which the masses are taking from the responsible in the form of insurance prices/demographics.

I would gladly submit my driving abilities, to the insurance companies in order to have more freedom, and the responsiblity it requires.

"To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief of the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility." - Eric Hoffer

This is how it all starts. Take health insurance. At the company where my sister works. First there was an optional survey to "asses peoples habits to better tailor the coverage, etc..." Then the survey was manditory or you paid extra for your insurance. Then they tested you and your rates for the year were based on your physical condition, age, etc. High colesterol, you pay more... Now for the past couple years her and her family all have to be tested and the rates are based on the fittness of the family. I know she does not have to work there, but this is how is starts. Then everyone is doing it and if you want to work, you have no choice.

If it lowers my rate, I don't care. I've got nothing to hide.

"I've got nothing to hide."

No offense meant, but this is a terrible way to think. The fact that you have nothing to hide doesn't justify an invasion of your privacy. People say the same thing when it comes to illegal government wiretaps - "oh, I don't care, I've got nothing to hide anyway."

Next up: submit to random strip searches! Comply because you have nothing to hide.

MyRate is an optional, behavior-based car insurance program that lets drivers pay based on how, how much and when their car is driven.

Soon you will hear that not opting to use this, you'll have to pay $1000.00 for six months of insurance.

But if you do use it, you'll only have to pay $300.00

But it's optional.

The "I've got nothing to hide" line is the excuse used every time somebody wants to give up another Liberty for safety or monetary advantage.

In Nazi Germany, the ordinary, loyal "Good German" never had to fear the midnight knock of the Gestapo, and so they accepted each new restriction passively or even gladly, rationalizing "Ich habe nichts zu verbergen."

You may or may not have "nothing to hide", though in my opinion, EVERYBODY has SOMETHING they would rather keep private. But, you certainly have something to LOSE - and that's your Freedom to travel unsurveilled by companies or the government, and, most of all, yet another slice of your Privacy.

submit to random strip searches!

Oh, I'd like to be able to enforce that.

Bluesun is guilty of something.

It lowers your rate this year.

It lowers your rate next year.

The following year, your rates will go up if you don't have one.

The following year, your rates will go up more if you don't have one.

The following year, you won't be able to afford insurance unless you have one.

The following year, you're offically big brother's bitch.

sorry.. but the more people there are the less freedom you will enjoy.

Too many people = no freedom.

Population..that IS the 800lb gorilla no one wants to confront.

Next up: If you accept this computer chip implanted in your brain you will get a 50% reduction in insurance rates across the board. Also big brother will give you a 1000 tax refund. Call now! The lines are open 24/7!

With the newest RFID (radio frequency ID) technology, everything from your car (perhaps its license plate or inspection sticker, for example) to your shoes and credit cards can be equipped with tiny RFID transmitters. With enough sensors spread about the country, Big Brother can monitor your every move.

For years, there have been some companies that include RFID tags in their employee id badges. They can and do use this technology to monitor how many times you leave your desk, say to go to the water cooler or the bathroom, and how long you stay.

At some point in the near future, there will be a seemingly harmless campaign to require "chipping" each newborn baby under the guise of making them easier to find if they are kidnapped (kind of like a human LO-JACK). However, once chipped, you can be tracked for the rest of your life.

Companies like VeriChip and Xmark are already marketing strap-on and human implantable RFID chips and, last year, one in four babies born in American hospitals were fitted at birth with at least the wrist-band Hugs chips.

LEEATWATER, BLUESUN is guilty of suffering from too much rationality in our grotesquely dumbed-down society, as well as a love of Liberty and Privacy as a matter of principle.

suffering from too much rationality in our grotesquely dumbed-down society, as well as a love of Liberty and Privacy as a matter of principle.

It is irrational for an insurance company to more accurately pool risk?

Who's liberty and privacy is being threatened with this?

They already look at your MVR and what car you are driving (VIN and everything). Personal or business, Mileage, etc......

this should help anybody who is less of a risk.

Andread Mackris re your 1223 to me on my statements earlier:

You view the idea of being responsible for your self, a loss of freedom.

There may be a difference here. If I am to be responsible for myself, let it be that way completely. Look, it's like this, using an automobile accident since we're talking about insurance: If you cause an accident, and you're injured, that's on you. If you can't afford to repair your car, that's on you. If you get yourself killed, that's on you.

But if you kill or injure somebody else, then I (or the appointed law enforcement parties) will staple you to the wall and cut your balls off (metaphorically speaking), and the person you killed or injured is getting everything you own because you injured/killed someone that isn't yourself. Likewise, if someone injures or kills you, the party who caused your injury/death will get kicked in the teeth repeatedly and with great fervor until you get appropriate compensation for what he did to you.

That's personal responsibility as I see it; if you screw up your own life, I give not a crap. If you screw up someone else's life, you deserve to have every bone in your body broken to make it right.

Note: Yes I know, my if/thens are rather extreme, but I felt it was necessary to illustrate my point that Andrea had me pegged completely wrong.

It's too late to bitch about it now, you're already pregnant. When your local DMV, which is a public functionary, requires that you purchase insurance, which is a private functionary, you are already fucked.

Legio, re your 1422: Completely agreed. I've always said 97% of the population of the planet needs to go away.

Eberly, re your 1448: See, if that was all it was to be used for, I might agree with you. But I don't believe for one moment that it will stop there. Hence, privacy issue.

Lipzodal (sp?), re your 1504: Agreed completely.

Damnit got the spelling wrong, sorry.

The population bomb has gone off and our freedoms will decrease as the population increases.

Have mentioned this many times before but somehow my posts disappear. Guess Roger doesnt like the deep ecology issues but...

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement

Theres too many of us! Do we wants to have a war or is there a better way?

VHEMT DOT ORG

"...Companies like VeriChip and Xmark are already marketing strap-on and human implantable RFID chips and, last year, one in four babies born in American hospitals were fitted at birth with at least the wrist-band Hugs chips...Posted by BlueSun"

Went to Walmart today to buy chinese-made golf balls. Out front two 20 year olds were signing people up to get an initiative on our California November ballot.

The initiative is to change laws regarding Sex Offenders. It would 1) Increase Mandatory Prison Time from between 15-25 years.

and 2) Insert a RFID into each Sex Offender so they can be monitored FOR LIFE.

I swear. That is the Initiative. The Walmart Crowd out here in Riverside County is signing in droves. The Kids working the Petitions are from a local church. And are picked up at the end of their 'shift' by a white van with Calvary Church scrawled on the side.

Two things struck me instantly; The term SEX OFFENDER in the initiative is left totally generic.

There are many levels of 'Sex Offenders': From Pedophile to a couple of kids fucking on prom night in the back of dad's oldsmobile. If arrested, and convicted, they are all considered 'Sex Offenders' and their record reflects that.

Second: For years the Christian Church Nut-Sacks have been screaming about Revelations and the 'Mark of The Beast' being a grand scheme to 'FORCE' a chip into the people. Rev. 13: 16-18.

Those stupid, ignorant, moronic, hypocrital Christians are pushing for the first LAW enacting LIFE-LONG enforced RFID implantation.

How's dem apples?

This information WILL be as safe with us as your Medical records are with your DOCTOR!

When I saw this in the Yahoo picture album I was disturbed. I wondered if there was maybe a little paranoia in me. Well, if so , it would seem that more of you feel as I do. It may be innocent now but for how long.

A little paranoia is good when you consider that a portion of our population, some called "Neo-cons" some just ultra conservative. A small thing now and it is most likely not done with evil intent but, the future of such "tracking" devices scares the hell out of my freedom loving ass.

How would our founding fathers view such a potential for control?

"looks more like the beginning of the end for personal freedom . . . :good thing I'll be dead before it finally happens." LETUSREASON

Punting another problem into the future; America's biggest flaw.
The insurance industry is out of control. Much more regulation is sorely needed.

progressive is a communist front.

Posted by nanc

Bad girl, don't say that. They're the only major company where i can get a good price on motorcycle insurance. 3 bikes - full coverage - about $400/yr.