tapping into the CAN (car area network) system on a vehicle lets you see things like timing retardation and advancement, barometric pressure, o2 levels, and throttle body positions. it tells you what these systems are doing in realtime but it fails to tell you why these systems did these things. at best youll have to make a guess, and insurance companies seem to have an incentive to lean into the "because you drive poorly" excuse in order to minimize risk to investors.
theres no target and no set of parameters that define what an altruistically good driver is in the eyes of these companies, only the companies insistence it can "save you money" without explaining what you must do other than "be a good driver" and install their widget, which runs mystery code that interacts with one of the most critical parts of your vehicle that may itself not even be DOT approved..
Also the OBD protocol is standardized and the device basically operates in a read-only fashion (cannot write data to the ECU). The worst problem that actually occurs with these is increased rates of battery drain while the car is off (though most devices have shutoffs in place to prevent the battery from getting too low).
I should have been more specific. They may not use this information for their product, but they are privy to it. theres also no transparency to say they ever delete that data.
OBD may be read only but CANbus pins exist in the OBD2 connector, and many CANbus implementations can be accessed through the OBD2. steering, brakes, and throttle can all be remotely controlled through the CANbus in most vehicles.
there has been at least one PoC that can detonate your airbags from the OBD. https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2017-1493...
"Both companies’ core products are apps on smartphones that use the sensors in the phones to collect data about how people are driving, such as whether they are speeding, frequently braking hard, or picking up their phones to text when they should be paying attention to the road."
There is nothing safe about following the speed limit when the speed limit is substantially lower than what the rest of the traffic wants to do.
I wonder if the UK is getting a net gain of young, highly motivated and educated professionals or a loss.
Additionally, many people can barely afford their car. It's crazy how many people are driving around in a car worth more than their annual salary. $60,000 vehicles and such, especially trucks. It would take them a while to "self insure" against the risk of totalling that.
The last thing they need is their insurer jacking their rates because they're ending too many trips in bad zip codes.
You can "incentivize them onto public transit" all you want but most of those people would already be on public transit if there was even a $40/mo difference.
It doesn't matter if there is a purpose when so many states mandate that you buy the product anyway.
