It is said that the number one cause of teen fatalities in the US is traffic accidents. It worries alot of parents when their kids first get on the road, and this is something geared toward allowing them to worry less (I guess): www.teensurance.com

Safeco Insurance will be releasing a new product at the end of this month: Teensurance. It consists of a GPS device being installed in the car, and allowing parents access to a secure web portal showing location of the car, it's speed, direction, etc. Safeco says this information will not be available to the insurance company, and will not be used for determining the cost of the policy. Parents can also choose to receive text messages if a pre-determined speed limit is exceeded in the car. Cell phone can be used to send a signal which unlocks doors in the event keys are left in the car, blah blah blah... the program will include roadside assistance and is exclusively for households with a teenage driver. They will offer a promotional rate of about $15/month at the beginning. The technology already exists as an add-on to some DEI alarms.

Question is, how will the average person respond to this? There are diverse people on this board, alot of parents and alot of teenagers. So what do you all think? Too much "big brother", or is it a legitimate way of mitigating the risk of having a teenage driver on the road?

 

why is this only for teens? i'd like this for security! doesn't canada have something like this...called vigil or something? that would be cool.

edit: http://www.vigilgps.com/contents.asp?cat=t...olutions&lan=en

 

I have a hard time believing that a prosecutor won't be able to subpoena "teensurance" to get information about an accident or incident.

If they have reason to believe a crime was committed, they have reasonable grounds to search your property and those things relating to your property (with a warrant, naturally).

I don't think I'd touch it with a ten foot pole. I'd just put a tracking device in the car that would probably do the main job (speed and location) for minimal cost.

 

I'm skeptical of this part.

It sounds like a decent idea though as far as the rest of it is concerned. Neither a teen nor a parent here, btw.

 

I don't know much about the legal system but I tend to agree with you about being subpoena'd. But, that being said, couldn't they subpoena any records that are kept if you subscribe to a service like DEI's?

Also, from what I understand, there is no up-front cost, just the monthly $15 (i'll find out more later). This is much lower cost than other GPS based tracking systems. It also includes roadside assistance. Also, the teen is always aware that they're being tracked as the parents and teenager sign a contract together that the teen is not to exceed a certain speed limit, drive outside a certain area, etc.

 

I work for an insurance company. We are offering a similar program to parents except that even includes a video camera, so the parents can actually watch their children driving. So far it has been very successful at preventing accidents. That's why we went live with the program.

 

what company offers this?

 

American Family Insurance.

We don't do business in New Mexico though. After checking again, it doesn't have GPS, it's just a camera. But I'm not selling the insurance, i'm just in IT.