Your car could soon start cutting off your phone calls, silencing the radio and monitoring the weather via intelligent windscreen wipers as insurers step up their hi-tech efforts to turn us into better drivers and cut the number ofaccidents.
Every driver in Britain could be monitored by their insurer’s tracking technology within the next decade, experts have predicted. Those who refuse could face higher premiums or be denied coveraltogether.
So-called “black box” or “telematics” technology is becoming more popular because it enables good drivers to get discounts on their insurance. The boxes are especially favoured by young drivers, who would often pay far more under conventionalunderwriting.
More than 300,000 cars are fitted with the devices, which track speed, braking, steering and mileage to help an insurer set premiums.
Everyone will be monitored a decade hence, as we disclosed
As the technology develops we can expect the monitoring of our driving style and habits to become far more comprehensive. Abide with these restrictions and you get the discounted insurance; refuse and you pay more.
Here are some of the experts’predictions.
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Monitoring your texts
Although insurers do not currently spy on mobile phone use, future technologycould monitor every aspect of bad driver behaviour, including the sending of text messages.
Drivers who have telematics insurance either have a small black box fitted inside the car or download a mobile app. The app can work out whether the car is in motion and even whether the phone is in a cradle, so the technology is there to tell whether the driver is texting at the wheel or making a call without being hands-free.
Julie Daniels of comparethemarket.com, the price comparison service, said: “The technology can track literally anything that is in the car – it just depends on what data the insurer wants to analyse. The number of text messages a driver sends while behind the wheel can be monitored, which insurers could use against a driver who frequently texts.”
Silencing the radio andmobile phones
One of the biggest causes of road accidents is the driver being distracted, either by a passenger or by an electronicdevice.
Some insurers are understood to be interested in the black box tracking the sound of all the electronic devices in the car, including the radio.
Andrew Miller, a research director at Thatcham, the motor insurers’ research centre, said future black boxes could be equipped with devices that would disconnect in-car phone calls and switch off sound systems above certain speeds.
“For insurers safety is key, so it would make sense to reward drivers who have this sort of technology in place,” Mr Miller said.
Some such devices have already arrived. Technology from Ford’s “MyKey” system can reduce the volume of the radio.
Monitoring the weightofthe car
Car insurance fraud adds to everyone’s premium. One of the fraudsters’ most common tricks is to cause intentional accidents and then claim that the car was full of passengers, all of whom suffered whiplash injury, when in reality the driver was the onlyoccupant.
To detect these false claims, technology could be built into the black box that tracks the weight of the car, according to Charlotte Halkett of Insurethebox, a leading telematics insurer. “Fraud is a major problem, so if this is introduced widely across the insurance industry it could help reduce everyone’s insurance costs,” she said.
Monitoring when the carisused
Some insurers’ black boxes already record the time of day when the car is used, but this is expected to become more common in the comingyears.
Drivers who avoid the mostdangerous times of day – between 11pm and 6am – can secure lower premiums.
Such policies are offered by iKube and Autosaint, which both “fine” drivers who break the 11pm curfew £100 a time.
Tracking the weather
Experts claim the black box is clever enough to track the weather by monitoring the windscreen wipers.
“The box could track local weather patterns to work out whether a person regularly travels in adverse weather conditions,” Ms Halkett said. “The technology could be built for this to happen if insurers want the data.”
kyle.caldwell@telegraph.co.uk
More: Six types of driver who would benefit from 'black box' insurance – and why
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