Auto Trends

First we heard talk about car lenders attaching monitors to our vehicles so they would not only know where the car is at all times, but they could turn off its functionality if you forgot to pay your bill. Now we hear of a Good Drivers Pilot Program being introduced in Alabama, Oregon and Minnesota by Progressive Insurance, with plans for a nationwide launch in 2009, that will offer new rates to its customers by how their driving is monitored.

These monitoring devices presented by Progressive will report to their home base when you drive, referring to what time and how long, as well as the specifics of how you drive. These specifics will include how hard you accelerate at a stoplight, how often you have to brake in stop and go traffic, and the amount of time you spend driving at higher speeds (55 and above), as opposed to low (35 and below).

So far they are not intending to include a tracking device to monitor your location at any given time, so all this information will be collected and averaged as a whole with other drivers in your area. If your average at the end of the month comes in below average for low speeds, calm acceleration, and moderate braking, then you could see as much as 60 percent off your regular premiums.

If you have a particularly stressful month on the road where you exhibit road rage on several occasions, you could be looking at a rate boost by as much as 9 percent your norm. They give you a 10 percent reduction right off the bat for signing up for the program, which is their way of enticing us all into this web.

They will tell you that their program will make the roads safer, as well as saving fuel by giving drivers the extra nudge to be on their best behavior. While this may indeed be the case, we hesitate to promote anything that begins to monitor us a nation.

We have all seen those future films where you can’t even go into your own bathroom without a camera recording the entire occurrence. Neighborhood watch programs that monitor everything that you do, and the minute you disobey one rule, you are fined.

Are you ready to live with Uncle Sam watching your every move. The feeling of someone breathing down your neck as you leave the parking lot of your favorite grocery store, just waiting for you to make that one mistake? Before you know it, they will have health monitoring systems to tell us when we are too old or in need of a check-up before we can be authorized to start our own vehicle.

Oops, looks like they have already beat us to that idea… we’re telling you folks, this could spell trouble for some of the freedoms we now take for granted!