Guest Post by The Zman
For years, the insurance mafia has been trying to get people to voluntarily plug a driving monitor into their car, using the prospect of a “discount” as an inducement. Most people don’t fall for this because they understand that the “discount” is of a piece with advertising that promises you’ll save “up to 20 percent” but actually save you nothing or very little – while always paying more.
Well, your next new car may come standard with the driver monitor already plugged in. Embedded, actually – which means you can’t remove it. Or say no thanks to it. If you buy the car, you buy the embedded narc.
Allstate and Nationwide just announced they’ve “partnered” with Ford to pre-wire most 2020 (and likely all 2021) model Ford and Lincoln vehicles with the embedded tech to “participate” in what is styled the Milewise program, which uses the vehicle’s in-car WiFi to transmit to the mafia data about your driving habits.
Elena Ford, chief customer experience officer at Ford Motor Company say: “This is the latest way we’re improving the customer experience . . . (it) makes getting insurance easier for connected-vehicle customers to cover one of their biggest investments – their vehicle – while saving money.”
The spiel goes on to promise “savings” of (here it comes) “up to 40 percent.”
Ostensibly, the monitoring is merely of the mileage driven – you pay less if you drive less – but what people aren’t being told is that the vehicles so equipped are fully capable of transmitting data about everything.
And not just your driving, either. But let’s start there.
How far you drive and where – as well as how fast. Anything faster than the posted speed limit being, of course, synonymous with “unsafe” driving – and we all know what that means.
Bye-bye “up to 40 percent” savings. More like 40 percent surcharge.
It will be like taking a radar trap with you every time you drive. Or rather, being unable to drive without running afoul of a radar trap.
And it won’t be just “speeding,” either. These in-car narcs also monitor how quickly you accelerate. Even if you never actually break the speed limit, if you accelerate too quickly – for saaaaaaaaaaaaafety! – then you can expect to not get that discount. Same goes for braking “too abruptly” – another indicator (according to the mafia’s metrics) of “unsaaaaaaafe” driving.
Basically, if you don’t hew to the “defensive driving” orthodoxies enumerated in the DMV manual – i.e., total mindless obedience to every traffic law, including full stops at every stop sign, the use of a turn signal every time you make a turn, never making a right turn on red, no passing if it means “speeding” – even if that’s the only safe way to pass – and eggshell-under-the-pedal accelerator and brake pedal inputs.
The tech also knows whether you’re buckled up for saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety, using a cell phone and even where your eyes are pointed (“drowsy/distracted driver” systems that use real-time eye-movement monitoring).
The car monitors alles – and alles can be piped in real-time to the mafia.
Ask any commercial driver. They are the Beta Test guinea pigs for what’s soon to be (cue Toothless Mountain Man voice) ree-quired of the rest of us.
It’ll be “optional” at first – in the sense that you’ll have the option to not do business with the Nationwide and Mutual families of the insurance mafia. But the other families are sure to clamber on board and it’s inevitable that if a new car comes equipped from the factory with the embedded tech to narc you out, the mafia will ree-quire it as a condition of coverage.
Which you can’t opt out of.
Aye, there’s the rub.
None of this would be intrinsically threatening if it were possible to (as Nancy Reagan used to say) just say no . . .
Not to Ford and the other car companies who are embedding wireless squeal-on-you (and squeal like a pig) technology in their new cars as part of the standard equipment suite. No one is forced to buy a Ford or any other car and that would serve as a kind of firewall against such intrusive, creepy tech because other car companies would likely not include it, giving you the option to avoid it – and putting pressure on Ford to not include it, assuming most people didn’t want it.
But when the mafia is in cahoots with the car companies it becomes very threatening because the mafia can literally threaten you. It can sic the government – and armed government workers – on you for saying no. It can force us – via the application of duress – to accept the in-car narc.
And not just Ford’s in-car narc.
When all the Five Families (there are more, but the term amounts to the same thing) decide to collectively reequire the in-car narc as a condition of their “coverage” – which the law reequires us to buy – then we have to accept as well as buy.
Allstate consigliere Ginger Purgatorio says that the in-car narc will “give drivers the ability to control and customize their auto insurance policy like never before.” She has it exactly right – except for the beginning.
It will give the mafia “the ability to control and customize their auto insurance policy like never before.”
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
After my great experience with our last purchase of a used vehicle, I will NEVER purchase new again. Problem solved.
No mandatory vehicle insurance where I am.
Haven’t had it in 15 years. Saved a ton of money.
Where?
An island in the Caribbean.
I’ve been driving for 50 years and NEVER caused an accident but I paid and paid and paid because gov’t in New York and Texas said I had to.
The whole idea of ‘no fault’ insurance was just a scam to allow the insurance mafia to gouge even good drivers.
Where does gov’t get off forcing someone to purchase an industry’s product? Vehicles were the test case and then they moved on to health care. What’s next?
FWIW many US states allow a driver to AVOID purchasing auto liability insurance by purchasing a performance bond.
I know, I know… it doesn’t really change the problem, but you can at least avoid the insurance companies’ games.
Whats next? Carbon tax my man, Carbon tax…
You will be charged by the mile, even the electric cars will be charged.
Stop that.
No tag, no license and no insurance needed while driving anything on your own land. Had some cop pull me over one day while I was riding in my truck with kids in the back next to the highway. Lights on barreling onto my grass nearly hitting the pond, like I was some criminal. Sirens. Etc. I hopped out with a big smile. Whats up?
He demanded and Said license and registration now! I asked why. He is all red faced spitting mad about the dangers of riding in the back of the truck, me with no seat belts near the highway etc etc. Laughed said this was gonna cost me at least a half dozen tickets. I laughed slapped my leg and said officer would you please leave. He became belligerent demanding under threat of arrest i produce license ins and reg. I laughed again and said I will ask you one more time to leave or I will call the cops and have you forcibly removed.
He said turn around. I said no. Pulls his taser out. I said, before you go all rambo you have 4 cameras on your lily white ass, and you are trespassing on my private property, making threats of bodily harm and false arrest with no produced warrant while harassing me and will lose your job, pension and much more when i am done with you if you pull that trigger. I respect you but you had best respect me, sir.
I asked for his supervisor before this gets out of hand. He started to threaten me once again. I asked where is his warrant and why are you trespassing on MY fucking land. I have asked politely for you to leave now 3 times. And pointed to numerous wifi tree surveillance cameras recording it all. He tried to tell me this was right of way and state property. i asked if he was the county or city appraiser and could prove that. Which I laughed and pointed to the property markers near his tire. Explained and schooled his ass in how much shit he was about to be in and he realized This and I swear i smelled shit from his pants as he tried to meekly leave. All while telling me he could still ticket me. I explained he should know facts before tangling with me because sir, I know facts and when i defend facts i am always right. When i do not know facts i clearly state I do not know. You sir, do not know your facts.
My kids were young and for the first time realized dad was a badass and did not take any shit and can back up what he says. After that day they always seemed to mind me more. They also realized I would back them up because dad knows his shit. They learned to trust me and respect me more that day because i was polite but extremely firm. They still tell stories, often with much more embellishment of course.
In short you do not need anything on your private property. For that matter you cannot be ticketed on private property in a wal mart parking lot. Although I pissed a judge off once arguin ghtese facts in court. Yes i won. Of course it helped that i also own wal mart. Yes. I. Own. Wal mart people. As a shareholder i am rightful owner and therefore it it is considered my private property as well as public use but the state has zero Jurisdiction in either case. This is why i own reits, and other investments. Essentially i have a 90% probability of owning in an investment anywhere I go in a parking lot….
When illegals can get drivers license’s, when illegals can kill people and only b given a citation, when illegals can not b cited or arrested for driving without a license in a certain Masshole community but ordinary Americans to all the above can and will be, I believe I speak for most Americans when I say you can take your travelling tracking device of your new 5ok UAW built POS and stick them up your collective asses until your hemorrhoid problem is cured.
Well said Goof.
S10 Blazer with a Cummins.
James, got my road warrior ready yet?
What kind of mods to the suspension did that take?
What happens to a new car if the WiFi is “damaged” and no longer functional? Does it cease operation or merely endlessly nag you about the “problem”. I certainly wouldn’t want my car broadcasting anything to anyone and would do whatever’s necessary to stop it.
4th and 5th amendment violations…
Currently working on “next car”. A 1974 Stingray convertible.
If you refuse to give up your freedoms of travel via self driving cars they plan to make it damn near impossible and unaffordable to drive yourself. They want to know your every movement, every purchase, what you write, say and even think (red flag laws). Want to know where you travel and why and whom you hang out with. All that is needed is digital currency next and you are a fully monitored tax slave. Buy lots of land now before that too becomes illegal to have an organic garden, privacy and a few acres of freedom…..our grandkids are sooooo screwed. We better teach them the Constitution and to choose to live on their knees or die standing. At this rate surely they will have to choose unless they are brainwashed and then they have no choice but will only know to live on their knees.
Three out of five people on the road (mostly illegals) drive with no insurance or license. Of course, being downtrodden POC immigrants, they get a pass. I’ll stick to my 18-year-old Chevy, and if the mafia tells me I won’t be covered, I’ll drive without. Fuquem.