Anyone? Progressive insurance Snapshot for bikes?

caldercay

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Feb 2, 2014
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Location
houston, tx
I've had Progressive insurance (all vehicles) for 15, maybe even 20 years. in all those years, I've never heard of their Snapshot program (for cage type vehicles).

Basically, it's a device (there's also an optional app) that plugs into the ODBii port to track your driving habits, and possibly reward you with reduced rates - see [1] for more details.

So yesterday I got an email from Progressive...
Subject: Get $50 for test-driving our new app.
Body: You've been selected to test out our new Snapshot® app for motorcycles. Exciting, right?!
Just for participating, you'll earn a $50 check, plus a sneak peek of the app.
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The program spans 90 days.
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Basically it's an app that records your riding style, to include speed, rate of ac[de]celeration, braking, and so on.
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I read the article below ... not sure I'm gonna participate - seems a bit intrusive.
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Anyone else??
...
[1] Article at Bankrate
www.bankrate.com

Progressive Snapshot, Reviewed by Experts | Bankrate

Progressive Snapshot is a usage-based insurance program, which monitors your driving habits, scores your performance and offers reduced rates if you perform well. Whether you are an existing Progressive policyholder or shopping the market for auto insurance, the Snapshot program could deliver...
www.bankrate.com www.bankrate.com
 
I participate in a similar program with another large name brand insurance carrier but it excludes the motorcycles. I’m willing to let them ‘ride along’ in the cars for the 25% discount I get on our home/vehicles bundle but if they roll the bikes into it I’m pretty sure I will lose my discounted rates.
 
My brother did this with his insurance company for his 2018 Vette. He only had to install it for 30 days I think. He just drove easily during that time, and wouldn't let me drive it with that thing plugged in. ;)
 
Larry Fine said:
Bikes have OBD-2 ports??
Click to expand...

They do not. This is using an app. I'm assuming they are using the phone's gps to keep track of your driving habits. I would also think this is a test of the app on a small population. If it works they can dispense with the odbii hardware and just use the app for their automotive customers as well.
 
it plugs in to your OBD connector for the car and I'm not sure how the do it on a bike. but it is simple, just unplug it, or turn the power off if you know your going to be having some fun. Do this intermittently so it never get a good reading on the miles it tracks. If they ask about the mile discrepancy just say it must be a software glitch. Take the money and run.
 
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If you unplug it, or disable the app, you simply "weren't driving" or "weren't riding" at that time.

Unless the device and app are un-disable-able.
 
Larry Fine said:
Bikes have OBD-2 ports???
Click to expand...
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Just to be clear ... even for cars, you can opt for the smartphone app ONLY (and not use the hardware device).
... ,(from the article)
The Snapshot app and plug-in device use GPS to pinpoint your location and track your velocity. The app also uses certain smartphone sensors, including the accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The app also uses your smartphones Wi-Fi connection to transmit trip data to the Snapshot system.
 
caldercay said:
.
Just to be clear ... even for cars, you can opt for the smartphone app ONLY (and not use the hardware device).
... ,(from the article)
The Snapshot app and plug-in device use GPS to pinpoint your location and track your velocity. The app also uses certain smartphone sensors, including the accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. The app also uses your smartphones Wi-Fi connection to transmit trip data to the Snapshot system.
Click to expand...
So they are way ahead of me.Top-30-Original-and-Hilarious-Happy-Birthday-Memes-2.jpg
 
And my interpretation about this, ie that they're paying me $50 and "plus a sneak peek of the app.", is they're using me as a "beta tester"
 
I used the plug ins for my two cages for another brand (Intact) for a couple of months.

I'd not do it again.

I found I was more focused on avoiding hard acceleration, braking, what times I was driving etc. trying to keep all the items they monitor under the limits (I got weekly emails where they rated "events" from good to bad) at the expense of driving what I felt was more safely.

I'd certainly never put one on my MC as the general acceleration every time you rode it would give you a "poor event."

They also collected a variety of data other than what was shared in the email updates that I have no idea what they did with it.
 
A few minor points. As @Obo said, they monitor quite a few parameters and unless you know exactly what they will do with this information and the perhaps unforeseen consequences of this data, you might be less than happy. Read their privacy statement carefully - I'd wager you will not like it.

Questions I would have is will this impact my insurance rates? What if they see me approaching triple digit speeds on a deserted interstate? What if your kids, friends, family borrow the car during the test and do something ahhhhhh, foolish? Would you want data as proof that you were the cause of an accident (God forbid)?

Bottom line, they are not paying you because they will not get a big return on this investment.

As was written in another post, "I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?"
 
tonythecarguy said:
They do not. This is using an app. I'm assuming they are using the phone's gps to keep track of your driving habits. I would also think this is a test of the app on a small population. If it works they can dispense with the odbii hardware and just use the app for their automotive customers as well.
Click to expand...
This, exactly- I switched in February from GEICO that I used for years (for the cars) to AARP The Hartford (yup...I’m old but AARP does give some very decent discounts) anyway, part of the lower insurance quote (3 cars, 2 with full coverage and one with liability only brought my quote from $2400 to $1515 per year) was agreeing to use their app which is a GPS tracker. It’s not a huge deal but I would like it to end soon (6 months from signing up), and on occasion, I have forgot to turn it off when on the ST, so it shows that as a car trip. As for MC insurance, I’d forego the app as it’s not worth it to me for what little savings I would get- I just got my quote for the year for the 2 bikes from Progressive (liability only)...$253 if I pay in full.
 
So if I have my phone in my pocket and I get in my buddy's Hellcat with him driving.... and we go for a wild ride. My insurance rates could suffer. Sorry not playing that game. No reported tickets or accidents should be enough to get me a lower rate.
 
Ever google who owns Progressive Insurance? I had bike insurance with them back in the '90's and there was a cost of insurance thread in an old forum. I asked my long time well trusted insurance company why mine was higher than other quotes when I supposedly had the best insurance risk rating. I copied the letter to the Arkansas Insurance Commissioner who replied he would also like an answer. The company dropped me, sent a nasty letter and blackballed me through out their many insurance subsidiaries. True story. Do you really want to give corporations that much info on your personal behavior?
 
This should all remind us that this sort of data collection is not for our 'benefit' but for the collector's benefit.
Insurance companies are in the business to minimize risk to themselves and thus increase their profits.
Any opportunity to avoid paying a claim is golden to most of them.
Providing insurance coverage is only a sideline for them - profit is the 'real' product ... ;)
Nothing wrong with a company making a profit as long as they deliver the 'promised' benefits.
 
I figured that some of us would reply that trading tracking for dollars was too invasive for them and bring up privacy issues and that's fine. It's an individual choice but there are a few posts that indicate a misunderstanding of how it works, at least for State Farm. You download an app on a smart phone and SF provides a GPS beacon about the size of a half dollar 1/4" thick. The beacon goes in the glove box. If my cellphone is not in the car it's not tracking the car. When my cell phone has location disabled it's not tracking the car. When my cell phone is not in that car - it's on me on a motorcycle or driving my company car or someone else's car it's not tracking for SF's purposes. As Covid has proven all of us with a cell phone are being tracked anyway and if you have certain social media accounts we are being tracked 24/7 by data mining companies.

At set up you take a picture of the odometer and every so often you get an email asking for a picture of the odometer. I think the ones I did last week were the second time in 16 months. Occasionally I have left my phone at home while in the car and occasionally I turn on Airplane Mode or turn the phone off while in the car - particularly when driving the Miata ;) so the mileage doesn't exactly track to vehicle movements and SF doesn't seem to care. It gives you up to 10 mph over and some latitude for speeding while passing or avoiding a situation. I'm well into a second year with it - the first year we had the misfortune to have two accidents; the drivers being my wife and son, the claims were paid and my rates did not go up at the 6 and the 12 month renewal. They don't seem to take notice of the 135 mph bursts now and then on non-beaconed vehicles. Because the discount for me is also on my homeowner's (in a hurricane state, in a 120 mph wind field zone, need I say more) it's saving me a lot of money.

At any time I can open the app and review the 'score' on current and past trips and it gives me a percentage 0 to 100% score for the last 14 days. It has ranged from about 65% to 95% so I haven't exactly been in the top of my class but I can say that it does remind me to concentrate on driving smoothly, to use foresight in traffic, and put into practice active situational awareness which we should learn as long term surviving motorcyclists anyway but because of the safety of 2000 to 4000 lbs of metal I don't always practice in the car like when on a bike. It seems to penalize acceleration, braking, and cornering more than 10 over the limit, I guess because erratic vehicle movements may be an indicator of accident risk greater than smoothy speeding.
 
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