I feel I may be buying into this big brother business, but my car insurance is ridiculously expensive. I’m doing anything I can, including switching insurance companies every 6 months just to make usage of their “sign on bonus” (Don’t worry, I’ve checked to make sure it’s cheaper)

I’m trying out Progressive Snapshot now. I must admit, I feel a bit worried about it all, the tracking etc. but they do make it easy. They assure me over and over again GPS is not used, speeds are not measured, and no matter what my policy can only go down, not up.


Essentially, they’re just monitoring it to see what times you drive (they say between midnight and 4am means you’re likely not to get a discount) and how hard you accelerate or brake.

I used to drive like a mad man, but I’m far more tempered. I don’t think I’ll adjust my habits much to accommodate this new tech in my car.

One thing I will definitely say, their packaging is very Apple-like in terms of ingenuity and enjoyment. I really liked it, so much so that I decided to post it up for anyone to see.

As shipped packaging:

Shipping Package

Internal packaging, fluffed with a very nice bright Progressive orange tissue paper. Kind of neat
Opening her up

This is the actual box, half opened. It opens from all four sides like a clover.
Half opened

Fully opened into a pretty circle with little notes and instructions
Unboxed!
(The blurred out portion is my vehicle info.)

and finally, installed into my OBD2 port!
Installed!



I must say, the little tiny LEDs that flash on it are very dim and fortunately not an annoyance at all. They look simultaneously cool and creepy.

I just got the email that they know I’ve plugged my device in. Also, creepy.

Even creepier is this graph they offer me:

This is my speed graph for my commute home (in the rain, in case you’re wondering)
Creeptastical

No matter what, this is still awkward and a bit scary to look at.

Edit: Now that the six month period has concluded, I can say how much I’ve saved. About 12%. Not bad!