Drivers Open to Devices Monitoring Their Habits, Performance

Assuming a gadget were available to track vehicle location, hours of operation, driver behavior and conditions inside a car, such as the number of passengers, a survey from CarInsurance.com found 81.3 percent of respondents would require people with a DUI conviction to use a monitoring device; 62.9 percent would require monitoring of teenagers; and 35.8 percent said all drivers should be monitored.

"Drivers are very willing to put technology in someone else’s car in order to bring down the hammer on bad driving," said Des Toups, managing editor of Carinsurance.com. "But they don’t like charging more for things not really related to driving, like bad credit."

CarInsurance.com asked 1,000 drivers how they would screen potential customers and price policies if they ran an insurance company. Respondents considered driving behavior, demographics and the use of driver-monitoring technologies.

The three areas drivers emphasized in their responses: texting would be penalized more severely than speeding, failure to use turn signals would increase insurance rates, and teens and drunk drivers would be monitored much more stringently, according to the survey.

Respondents took an especially harsh view of phone use while driving: 75 percent would raise insurance rates for a driver caught with a phone to his or her ear; 51.6 percent would offer big insurance discounts for drivers who install a cellphone-disabling device; and 72.9 percent said that drivers who text should pay more than drivers who speed.

"State laws haven’t caught up with driver opinions," said Toups. "Speeding tickets hit your driving record in every state, but only a dozen states record texting violations. And that means insurance companies can’t charge the drivers who do it extra."

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