Technology Adjusts Insurance Money

[Mike O'Dell]

video recorders which record the driver and out the front
is now standard equipment in many fleet vehicles.

the systems run continuously overwriting a circular
buffer a few minutes long. systems contain accelerometers
and GPS units, and some get data from the diagnostic bus.
when a triggering event happens, the buffer is stashed
to a FLASH card and it resumes operation. if a sufficiently
large trigger happens, it goes into continuous record to
the FLASH for a few minutes after things calm down.

the companies developing these have cut deals with the
insurance companies who write fleet policies. while
theoretically these things are optional, the delta in
premiums in one year more than makes up for the purchase
or lease price of the units.

drivers log their FLASH cards in and out as part of a
shift change, and of course, failure to log it into
the reader which sucks the contents out and into your personal
performance database entry is a firing offense most places.

the story is pitched that this is for "driver improvement",
as in once a month the driver sits down with a "counselor" who
"reviews" their performance over the last month and makes
"recommendations". Obviously if there is an accident of some
kind, it gets looked at immediately.

the purveyors of this little slice of hell counter driver
objections with "it will provide exculpatory evidence just the
same way if that's the case. WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO BE AFRAID OF?"

the only thing I can say is "BOHICA"

	-mo