Mayfield Village, Ohio - Progressive Direct is taking what it believes to be the next big step in the evolution of auto insurance pricing. The Mayfield Village, Ohio company is inviting its customers throughout the country to participate in a voluntary research program that will gather driving habit information.
Customers who choose to participate in the research program will install in their vehicle's On-Board Diagnostic (OBDII) port a small device called a TripSensor. The device will collect and record information about individual trips, including start and end time, miles driven, duration, number of aggressive braking and/or acceleration events, speed at 10-second intervals and time and date of each connection/disconnection to the OBDII port. The sensor does not record where the customer drives.
All driving information is shared voluntarily with Progressive and will not affect the cost of the customer's current auto insurance policy, said the company. However, Progressive may offer its participating customers future discounts based the duration TripSensor is used and a host of other factors.
The TripSensor program is the latest in Progressive Direct's product research and development efforts and uses technology currently deployed in a usage-based auto insurance discount pilot program underway in Minnesota. Called TripSense, drivers in the program are eligible for a discount on their renewal policy if they choose to send their driving data to Progressive.
For helping with its latest countrywide product research and development efforts, Progressive will reimburse customers $50 for six months of data from each car in the program. Customers may install a device in as many cars as are insured with Progressive Direct and may sign up for multiple six-month terms. Progressive Direct's goal is to collect a substantial amount of information from a representative sample of U.S. drivers in the next couple of years.
Source: Business Wire
