British Auto Insurer AA Unveils GPS Tracked Insurance Policies For Drivers

If you live in the UK, you're probably familiar with auto insurance company AA. The company has taken a cue from some of its smaller rivals in the UK and has introduced a new type of insurance policy that uses a little GPS recorder under the hood to track driving habits of the insured. The little box can transmit things like your speed, and if you're braking hard. The box can also record cornering speed, what types of roads the person drives on, and what time of the day the person drives.

Presumably, that data can be used to tweak your insurance premiums if you drive at high speed, on a bumpy road, during a high-traffic time of the day. The data that is collected is then remotely transmitted to the insurance company, and the driver can access that data online. I can see parents going for this, so they can see how their kids are actually driving when they are alone.

AA spokesman Ian Crowder also notes that the data the box collects could be used to determine who is at fault in an accident, but that data would only be released by court order. The data sent to the insurance company could also result in "a stern e-mail" being sent to the driver if high-speed driving is recorded. I also suspect a premium increase notice would come along with the e-mail. What do you think about this sort of insurance? I think as long as the driver is willing, there's nothing wrong with having a black box attached to your car.

[via BBC]