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Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

arstechnica.com

111–120 of 195 posts

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#112
post #4

It makes sense to share your data with an insurance provider if you are a well-behaved driver. It is well-behaved drivers that subside the insurance cost of reckless drivers.

This sounds like the infamous (and flawed) “honest people have nothing to hide” argument, to be honest.

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#113

All mandatory insurance is a subsidy to private shareholders; it should not exist as is. If insurance is legally required, it should also be legally required to be non-profit and government run.

I tend to agree. But how do you avoid that experience becoming terrible? Competition between insurance companies does keep the experience good and probably keeps the price down.

simple: you build the cost into the price of gasoline and electric charging. one risk pool and removing advertising probably also keeps the price down.

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had a perfectly accurate crystal ball and the number of accidents you would have in your lifetime is zero then your account wouldn't need to have any money in it.

It's true that perfectly accurate crystal balls would render insurance irrelevant. It doesn't strike me as that interesting of a revelation, but it is true.

I guess it's a response to people saying "They need to charge bad drivers more that they do, in proportion to how badly they drive." If insurance could accurately do that, it wouldn't be insurance--it would just be an individualized pre-paid accident savings account.

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#115
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the inference they have isn't reliable enough to predict anything except with broad groups. Swerving to avoid road debris or hard braking to avoid a deer as examples of what have cost commercial drivers jobs. Look at the CDL world for a view into this. I have 30 years of clean driving records BTW, so not trying to justify risky driving BTW

This is how all the tech bro mass management of people systems work. Do away with any customer service, throw away randos impacted by any situations outside the norm because your system is large enough to keep the needed critical mass even without those people. Scale over nuanced edge cases to minimize cost/friction/complexity. The future world will become more and more brittle/brutal for us randos because we are 100…

Plot twist: at some point in our lives we're all in the "randos" group. So these policies are default inhumane to some portion of the populace all the time.

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#117
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t even need to install anything, just save the link to the map view: https://www.gasbuddy.com/gaspricemap?lat=34.188030028165215&... Or forget it all and go straight to Costco.

> go straight to Costco No way, I value my time tyvm. At locations near me, I swear one spouse goes in to shop for 2h while the other waits in line for gas for as much of that 2h as they can.

It's not that extreme by me I guess, but it's at least 10 minutes minimum. And if you have a car with a small tank and decent mpg, its just not really worth the trip to costco or the time just to save $2 (20-30c a gallon).

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can and should be done without phoning home. It's the invasion of privacy that's the issue, not the safety feature itself.

That’s true, as long as the footage is saved to a device that is not tamper-able.

[flagged]

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#119

This is your friendly reminder that the insurance industry does not generally make money on underwriting. In other words they are losing money on insuring you. Typically the costs of the insurance side of the business are greater than their revenue from premiums. This typically means that insurance actually is a good deal on net. They make their money on investing the float. They can only do that if they attract prem…

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing this.

Re: Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to track driving behavior: lawsuit

#120
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you drive slower you’ll break smoother. I hate insurances and their hidden shenanigany-like algorithms but at the end it is a fair game I when you look at the big picture. I never owned a car but I feel deeply concerned as I use the road by foot, bike and rentals and am often scared by the drivers usage of the road. You know : texting, updating gps, driving full speed in turns without visibility, taking over as Sc…

> The speed limit is a LIMIT not a requirement. And don’t start me with "you’re dangerous driving so slow" lol. There are many places that have minimum speed limits as well.

There's no jurisdictions where the minimum is higher than the speed limit though.
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