ITL Focus: Telematics

In all my years covering all manner of technology, telematics may have caught me off-guard the most.

When I first wrote about Progressive’s auto telematics program, Snapshot, in 1998, it seemed like a slam dunk. Of course, it made sense to monitor how people drove and to price their insurance accordingly.

Or not.

It turns out that the devices didn’t provide as much insight as expected — was that a good hard brake, because someone did something stupid in front of you and you reacted quickly, or was that a bad hard brake because you were distracted and didn’t see something you should have?

I also underestimated how much people would be put off by even the simple process of installing a Snapshot device and how little people would respond to a discount in their premiums.