Nationwide Smartride not designed for EVs

[Plaidfinger]

I’ve had my insurance set up with Nationwide for a while now and by using their Smartride devices I have a 40% discount on my GT350 and Ranger…well due to policy timing I have to leave the device on the Mach E GT for 260 days!!! I’m very competitive and a 40% discount is certainly worth some cautious driving but that a VERY long time when they already know how I drive. Should be linked to the driver…anyway, one of the metrics the device tracks for the discount is idle time. I plugged it in this week and just checked my discount progress tonight….only 10%!! Guess why?! Because my idle time is 22% of my total driving time for the week. I set up departure times and our fun device doesn’t know the difference between 15 minutes preconditioning and 15 minutes sitting in traffic. So now the only way I can get my insurance down to where it should be is to leave my departure times turned off all winter and for the next 8.5 months. Sure was nice getting into a nice warm car all week, guess I’ll have that pleasure again in August when I get my 40% off lame.

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[connoisseurr]

I'll have to ask Allstate about this. I am setup to use Milewise for additional insurance savings.

 

[kltye]

Is it an OBD device? Could you just leave it unplugged, and plug it in when you start driving?

 

[Plaidfinger]

Is it an OBD device? Could you just leave it unplugged, and plug it in when you start driving?

It is, but if it’s unplugged for more than 5% of the time they disqualify you.

 

[kltye]

It is, but if it’s unplugged for more than 5% of the time they disqualify you.

Yikes. But, how can they tell the difference between "unplugged" and "car has been turned off"?

 

[murphy62]

Yikes. But, how can they tell the difference between "unplugged" and "car has been turned off"?

The power lead in the OBD port is always on.

Your insurance company needs to upgrade to the 21st century.
My insurance company uses a device they call a Beacon. It is battery powered and connects to my cellphone via bluetooth. An app runs on the cellphone to provide all of the data they need.

 

[Plaidfinger]

The power lead in the OBD port is always on.

Your insurance company needs to upgrade to the 21st century.
My insurance company uses a device they call a Beacon. It is battery powered and connects to my cellphone via bluetooth. An app runs on the cellphone to provide all of the data they need.

Had a similar set up with my prior insurance (Liberty Mutual) and the reason I prefer this 20th century solution is that it only tracks accel/decel, idle and time of day. The More advanced one that used the app also tracked actual speed using GPS and you’d get dinged for that too. I don’t remember the limit, may have been 70mph or so, but at the time I was using the highway to get to and from work every day and I would find myself having to decide between staying with the flow of traffic or driving dangerously slower than all the cars around me in order to get a safe driving discount. I can drive as fast as I want as long as I reach that speed safely!

I often think to myself, I wonder how many people with these choose to run a red light rather than hitting the brakes and risking their discount.

 

[connoisseurr]

Had a similar set up with my prior insurance (Liberty Mutual) and the reason I prefer this 20th century solution is that it only tracks accel/decel, idle and time of day. The More advanced one that used the app also tracked actual speed using GPS and you’d get dinged for that too. I can drive as fast as I want as long as I reach that speed safely!

Consider Allstate and Milewise. Their device only tracks trips and mileage.

 

[sotek2345]

Nope, sorry. Never using one of these devices, I don't care how big the discount is.

 

[Plaidfinger]

Nope, sorry. Never using one of these devices, I don't care how big the discount is.

Totally get it but a 40% discount for the life of the policy on this car would be almost $500 a year. Well worth a couple months of grandma driving.

 

[RockwallRick]

So Nationwide is NOT on your side!!

 

[EELinneman]

I’ve had my insurance set up with Nationwide for a while now and by using their Smartride devices I have a 40% discount on my GT350 and Ranger…well due to policy timing I have to leave the device on the Mach E GT for 260 days!!! I’m very competitive and a 40% discount is certainly worth some cautious driving but that a VERY long time when they already know how I drive. Should be linked to the driver…anyway, one of the metrics the device tracks for the discount is idle time. I plugged it in this week and just checked my discount progress tonight….only 10%!! Guess why?! Because my idle time is 22% of my total driving time for the week. I set up departure times and our fun device doesn’t know the difference between 15 minutes preconditioning and 15 minutes sitting in traffic. So now the only way I can get my insurance down to where it should be is to leave my departure times turned off all winter and for the next 8.5 months. Sure was nice getting into a nice warm car all week, guess I’ll have that pleasure again in August when I get my 40% off lame.

Back in my days at Microsoft, I ran a project at a large Cleveland-based insurance company that started and advertised heavily their device and how it would save you money. Based on what I saw from the data and the analytics that were being used, these are never done for the benefit of the policy holder. Many states have laws in place regarding insurance rates being raised for accidents and other claims, but none regulate the raising of rates based on this type of data. Many insurance executives see this as their way to generate more revenue while having drivers change behavior without an explicit mandate from the company. We just changed insurance (yesterday actually) and I was insistent that we do not have one of these or an app required. It ended up costing us about 7% higher rates. Until this is the only way to get insurance, I will never, ever use one of these or the tracking app.

 

[ARK]

Totally get it but a 40% discount for the life of the policy on this car would be almost $500 a year. Well worth a couple months of grandma driving.

That is not a significant amount IMO for a car that costs as much as the Mach-E GTPE. Might as well get an ER AWD Premium without this insurance nanny - you’ll save far more than having the GTPE because the car costs less in terms of purchase price, will have a lower insurance base rate as I’m sure it’s a lot higher on any GT variant, and can still feel free to engage in shenanigans in a way a nannified GTPE could not because of that device.

My two cents.

 

[JamieGeek]

You could always get one of the GPS based devices and keep it in a faraday bag??

"I have no idea why it couldn't figure out location??"

 

[RyZt]

This is not even an EV problem. One could remote start a modern ICE vehicle from their phone to pre-warm/cool the cabin. It’s just plain outdated.

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