Can You Trust Insurance Companies’ Driving Trackers?
Perhaps you’ve heard of Progressive’s Snapshot® program, which lets you attach a device to your car that tracks your driving habits. Depending on what the device reports back, Progressive might offer you savings on your rates.
After the program first came out, other insurance companies like State Farm dove in as well. Some even connect the program with driver assistance programs, which require you keep the device attached long-term and allow it to store GPS information.
Progressive lauds the program as a new way to save more on car insurance and even potentially help with injury claims after an accident.
Indeed, a lot of struggling families could use a break. But consumer advocates are concerned about privacy issues.
Privacy Questions Around Insurance Trackers
Most of the insurance companies using this type of program claim the device doesn’t collect information on where you drive or how fast. But they admit it definitely stores information on how fast you start and stop, and when you drive. Because this technology is already fairly advanced, some people doubt them when they say the devices don’t include GPS.
In any case, the companies can and will turn over the information when required by law.
While you would think this technology is a great step forward for personal injury law, it might not always be the case.
How Driving Trackers Impact Personal Injury Law
In one sense, it makes my job as a car accident lawyer in Memphis much easier. These devices can say a lot about what happened at the time of a crash.
But it’s not always the best choice to depend solely on technology as evidence. Technology can and has let us down before, as it can malfunction and be tampered with. We also have to depend on eyewitness testimony and physical evidence. For example: these devices won’t help us much in proving cases against phantom drivers and hit-and-run accidents.
Perhaps more importantly, most modern cars (96% of new cars in 2013) already have a black box that records everything: your speed, steering angle, seat belts, airbag deployment, and more.
Though not always easy to obtain by law, attorneys can and do use this information.
So when the insurance companies – a money-making corporation that will often fight against you after an accident, not for you – claim their products will help the legal process, they aren’t being entirely honest with you.
An Accident Lawyer Who Understands the Technology
If you’re injured in a car accident, you need an attorney who understands these devices and how the insurance companies work.
Contact our Memphis car accident attorneys today to get started: 901-327-2100, or use the form on this page.