Comment on The current state of auto insurance: shit that belongs on a shady Kickstarter from 2013
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks agoBut this kind of thing is ripe for unintended consequences at best and flat out bad data at worst.
When I drive I put my phone in the center so I can see the map. If me and my passenger’s phones are in the center, who is marked as driving when I get into an accident?
From there, why stop at one phone? Let’s put several phones in the back seat, including mine. Hell, let’s have a burner phone that I use only for driving that has a throw away account. Or let’s go back to old fashioned maps and GPS devices while our phones are turned off. Meanwhile, at home, I’ve spun up a virtual device where it is very peacefully driving a route. Perfectly. Then I have another virtual device that is driving a different route on the other side of the world driving erratically.
These companies are forgetting that the data from phones are data from devices, not people. If you’re going to spy on me, I’m going to make you fucking earn it.
ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
that’s my point. Or a holder of some kind.
as opposed to passengers who basically never put their phones in the center console.
especially for a taxi or uber. That would be insane.
again: the question is: are you a driver or a passenger? And I’m saying that that distinction is very plausible to make.
if your sole goal is to make it harder to tell in an accident, sure. This is just sensor data, not clairvoyance.
BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
My friend keeps her phone in a purse, which she puts on the floor of the passenger side whether she is driving or a passenger sitting shotgun. It’s always in the same place. When we take Ubers she usually sits in the middle so she can see, and puts the purse between her feet. Thus her phone is almost never on her person in the car.
I suspect this is true for a lot of women who use purses.
So while it may be true for you that your phone is on you while a passenger, that’s a ton of people it isn’t true for at all, who would then be in the “bad data” camp.
ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
right, but your friend doesn’t put their purse in back seat if they’re sitting in the front, or visa versa, right?
no person driving should have their phone on them when they’re driving, so it’s an easy spot to exclude. The rest is logic, sensors and probability.
BubbleMonkey@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Well now you are just moving the goalposts with that “does she put it in the back” nonsense.
Again, her purse is always in the same spot when she’s either driving or the passenger sitting shotgun. How are they going to sort out her data when it’s almost always in the same spot?
And the same for anyone else with that habit. Or who uses the passenger seat to hold their bag.
chocoladisco@feddit.de 2 weeks ago
Why wouldn’t I have my phone on me while driving? Where else would it be?
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So if I throw my phone on the passenger seat whenever I’m not using my GPS, I must never be driving!
ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not sure what you’re saying, but it sounds like the opposite of what I am, and what’s the opposite of what’s legal in most places.
Passerby6497@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It’s illegal to put my phone on the passenger seat??? Please, show me what law is be violated, because that sounds utterly ridiculous.
But the point I’m making is that you can’t make an assumption on who is driving based on where the phone physically is. I could be a passenger or my phone could be on the passenger seat or just sitting in the center console. I could be a passenger and my driving friend is using my phone for GPS on the dash.
There are way too many confounding variables to begin making guesses on driver based on phone sensor readings.