This link is kinda long, but it will explain everything:

http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/privacy_policy.jsp”

I know that OnStar was available on some Subaru models a few years back when GM owned a percentage of the company. No more.

I went to the OnStar website before my first post, and if it is currently available on anything besides GM products, I couldn’t find it there.

Activist? What is activist about restoring/reaffirming our 2nd Amendment rights? Activist would be legislating from the bench, finding “rights” where none existed before. This decision is a return to sanity.

Back to topic, I agree this is a bad situation if mandated (and I work for an insurance company). Monitoring would be a good thing if you think you could save some money over the standard rate, otherwise you wouldn’t want it.

Insurance companies play the risk game very well and when they can eliminate an unknown, especially in their favor, they will. If insurance were optional I would have no problem with it but mandated insurance coverage means by law you are someone’s customer. Now the insurance companies have your sack in their hands.

From here it is a small step to automatically ticketing a driver for speeding, tailgating , touching the crosswalk at a red light, and the ultimate control of limiting vehicle operation during certain situations. With GPS enabled computer tracking all this and more is possible. If you think it can’t happen think again. Plenty of money and hookers are spent in Washington passing laws to fleece 300 million people, this will be no exception.

Too bad cars were not around in 1791 because I’m sure the Constitution would have included at least one right to travel unmolested about the country.

Regarding those 1-800 number stickers I have always felt bad for the chumps that have to drive around with what amounts to a “kick me” sign stuck on their bumper.

You don’t see them very often anymore but the “How’s my driving? Call 1 800 Eat Sh_t” stickers would always crack me up. Juvenile I know.

Apple is giving us the iPhone with GPS on July 11th. How hard will it be in a few years to bolt an iPhone sized device onto EVERY CAR for insurance purposes? Not hard at all.

I work in a distribution firm now, and we do exactly this with our sales force and delivery truck fleet. And yes, it’s for insurance purposes, as well as standard fleet management.

You know what’s scary? It works. Since we installed GPS in the trucks, the number of motorist complaint calls to our 1-800-HOWS-MY-DRIVING line went down significantly. So did overtime claims by drivers, while correspondingly, deliverys/day and salesrep visits/day are way up.

People really do behave when they’re being watched.

“How hard will it be in a few years to bolt an iPhone sized device onto EVERY CAR for insurance purposes?”

Isn’t that called a navigation system? People will soon demand it as standard equipment, and with the webification of said systems insurance companies, penile enlargement specialists, and dating sites will be able to track your every move.

Apple is giving us the iPhone with GPS on July 11th. How hard will it be in a few years to bolt an iPhone sized device onto EVERY CAR for insurance purposes? Not hard at all.

And if you think you will be able to pay more money so you won’t be spied on, why would they want to insure you at all? They won’t. Why pay to insure someone who has basically admitted to breaking the rules of the road.

Only government regulation will allow us to keep on driving without the evil eye of the insurance industry in our car with us.

Acura and Audi come to mind.

Anyway, as the system is only available on GM vehicles, and GM sales are decreasing annually, it appears that Progressive has hitched their wagon to a falling OnStar (apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson).

Maybe the aggressive ones, I don’t see how it will fix the oblivious ones. The later are more of an issue IMO.