Insurance companies forced to make men/women policy prices equal

Let's put it this way: it all depends who decides what is the norm. John Prescott drove the Top Gear track on Sunday, and it was frankly embarassing. There are buses that go faster.

If he or his ilk decide what the normal braking distances are, normal this, that, t'other, there is no hope.

12v battery in the shed with a gadget on it. Or your freedom.

 

My 2pence I'd like to add - while I love joking about women drivers etc, and it is all very amusing, I have to say that I see just as many terrible male drivers as women. As someone mentioned above I think men tend to screw things up at a higher speed than women. While on the whole I think spatial perception is better in men than women, I've seen some completely retarded things in my time....

Once while waiting at a petrol station for my girlfriend to come back I witnessed a bloke in a Volvo estate try to squeeze between a brick wall and a car that had parked without much thought as to what he was blocking off. Volvo guy was in such a rush to get between these 2 obstacles and into the waiting garage car wash that he scraped the wall and all the way down the other car just to get through. I could see he wasnt going to get through there in a million years, not a chance, and I sat there in horrified amusement watching him try to squeeze through and in the end just going for it. Complete pratt. After my amusement had worn off, the guy who owned the car came out and knowing how angry I'd be if someone had done that to me and gotten away with it (no matter how stupid a place this guy had parked his car), I told him! He obviously wasnt best pleased and he and Volvo man had a barny inside the car wash!

Men and women should be equal as they can be equally stupid!

 

With regard to the "black box" the RAF are using them to save wear and tear, fuel and to help pin the blame firmly on you if you stack it

it records erratic driving and not just speed, it does warn you though

 

I would be right up for having a tracker box in my car so I could get a reduced insurance premium. I hardly do any miles, and live in the back of beyond where seeing other cars on the road is rare.
The chances of me finding another car to bump into are slim! Mainly because I have got all the other cars lying in bits in my garden.

 

i think there would be a market for some driving sim devices that fool the black box

 

Well they have till december 2012 to sort it out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12606610

 

Hmm, so me getting a sex change for the next 8 months is probably not going to be of much benefit.

I am currently selling my shares in "Sheila's Wheels" as I write this.

They say the average claim for a bloke's insurance claim is over 4G! I have not spent that amount of dosh on all the cars I have ever owned, and that includes buying them!

 

a true scot

i'm shocked at how much some of my mates have spent, i've spent up to almost 10k in 20 years of motoring. Mate's spent over 70k in the same time

 

The most worrying things about these blackbox devices are-

What are they going to be set up to detect? Almost certainly speed, but will they be capable of telling if the car is in the wrong lane or if it is indicating or even in it had gone the wrong way around a roundabout?

Also if they become commonplace will the insurance companies make the assumption that anyone who refuses to have one fitted must have something to hide and put a huge loading on their premium as a result?

I'd also like to know who, other than insurance companies, will have has access to the data recorded?

 

Why would you be going around a roundabout the wrong way? Why are you speeding? I am fed up paying through the nose for insurance premiums to cover the cost of other idiots driving technique (or lack of it).
That is just paranoia Gaz. I can just see buildings full of folk watching the GPS signals on every single car as it moves around Britain's roads. That is really going to be a useful resource in these cost cutting times.
If you want to worry about things like that, what about your medical records? Hmm, the prime minister needs a new kidney and you just happen to be the perfect match. Your days are numbered my friend.

 

I'm not going to be driving the wrong way round roundabouts but plenty of people do & I suspect that these "blackboxes" won't be set up to detect that, all they'll be interested in is speed.
So you will be able to get cheaper insurance if you drive in the wrong lane, never indicate, don't give way on roundabouts etc, but drive at 35 in 30 limit and you'll be paying extra.

My concern over who had access to the data logged by these devices is more to do with the Police knocking on my door asking why I was in a certain place at a certain time & please don'tsay "if you've done nothing wrong then you have nothing to hide" I work for them so I know different

 

The black boxes with work in the same binary way speed cameras work. Automated policing, without discretion or understanding. They'll be speed and G-triggered, but (as said) up the wrong side of a road for a laugh: not a clue. Useless for catching out crap wimmin driving.

C*nts. I cannot believe this has EVEN seen the light of day.

 

I hear what you are saying about them not logging other bad driving techniques like indicating and checking mirrors.
The thing is that speed is the main reason for folk getting involved in expensive accidents, due to the lack of time for a driver to react and the momentum of the car causing more damage than a low speed incident. So from a cost saving point of view for the insurance companies, I can see why they may be interested in this.
A higher amount of miles covered, taken in a more populated areas must have a higher risk than less miles in a quiet area of the country.

If the Police break the law with regard to using data, break it back.

Or you could always go a bit "Logan's Run". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan's_Run

 

Well, out of interest I did a quote with coverbox.com. There quote for a year was more expensive by around 200 than a typical normal fully comp quote. No point even having a tracking box at the moment it seems.

 

So a capable, alert driver doing 70mph on an empty A road with good visibilty is more dangerous than a distracted mother type shouting at her kids who are fighting in the seat whlist driving at 30mph on a busy city center road? I don't think so.

Not forgetting the pensioners who seem to regularly get confused at junctions and drive the wrong way along a dual carrigeway or the nice middle class, middle aged ladies, whose Micras don't appear to have either rear view mirrors or indicators, who just aim their cars in the direction they want to go & god help anyone in their way.

 

We useless Brits are going to stand and watch this happen under our noses, like everything else.

Utterly ridiculous.

 

Presumably the GPS can work out what roads the car is travelling on and the applied speed limit. So some cretin doing 80mph in the middle of town will get hammered.

This will all be worked out statistically anyway on the averages.

 

The cretin doing 40mph will also get hammered.

 

Totally agree a woman ran into the back of a car behind me and in turn that cat shunted me - the cause, kids in the back of the car and the woman not concentrating said she didn't see the car in front had stopped........

 

As long as she wasn't speeding that's fine