Nearly missed an article in Sunday Telegraph 6/11/05 (Money & Jobs Section) titled "Black box motor insurance trial takes a a wrong turn".
Unfortunately this is not available online so I have typed it for all to read.
The Government could be heading for a major jam over its plans to introduce motorway charges using satellite technology after it emerged that the system is not as reliable as first hoped.
Norwich Union is currently piloting a pay-as-you-drive scheme where a driver's insurance premium is linked to road usage. But it admitted to the Sunday Telegraph on Friday that a 'significant number' of the 5,000 black boxes that have been fitted into policyholders cars to monitor driving habits have had to be replaced after technical problems.
The trial uses Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to monitor a motorist's mileage and driving habits. For example, certain types of road and times of day are higher risk than others.
The Government hopes to use the same technology to record how often drivers use motorways and at what time of day.
Martin Otter of Norwich Union said the problem had arisen because chips in the black boxes had failed. For very heavy road users, this had typically happened after six months.
He said 'This is all part of the learning process, The technology is developing all the time. Obviously we are dissapointed with this setback. It is an expensive business sending out engineers and inconveniencing our customers. We pick up the problem as soon as the signal fails, but the driver has no idea anything is wrong.'
I know this is still early days but I cannot see how a road pricing scheme could be run that was 100% efficient. This experiment is with just only 5,000 cars not 12 million vehicles, and is causing problems. Could this just be another attempt to expand the number of state employees with no added gain for the taxpayer. Who is going to pay for the technology necessary and who is going to pay for it's maintenance. What happens when it inevitably fails or someone works out how to avoid it.
What do you think?
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
|
GPS has two fundamental problems for road pricing.
1/ How do you stop, or for that matter charge, someone who has a defective GPS* from driving on the road.
Its all very well saying "ah but the "system" will know its not working" It could be intermitant*.
2/ Ah yes - the "system". Its got to cope with 30 million users, in real time, Hello someone, do you realise how much this will cost?
*intermitant nudge nudge, wink wink, pass the foil fag packet someone.
Road pricing can only work with transponders on cars and ground based tracing stations - ala dart tag.
|
Yeah.
My Garmin Etrex is usualy reliable, but not always. Has recorded a 176mph max speed in a 1.9D Berlingo, and a journey of over 500 miles in less than an hour - on foot in Whinnlatter Forest
|
I thought this black box idea was fantastic - until I saw the pricing. 1 pound per mile after 11pm at night?!
Not likely, as I tend to do all my long distance driving at night. Suppose I needed to get back down to Devon in a hurry overnight? That'll be 300 quid please.
I refuse to believe that my driving is that dangerous at night. I've never driven tired and never had an accident.
|
Can you post a link to rates? I have quickly Googled but found nothing relevant.
--
pmh (was peter)
|
|
|
I do not know what the inside of one of these units looks like. If the electronics are based on what us usually fitted to cars or trucks then there will be thousands of electronic failures each week. Automotive electronics is still not as good/reliable as aerospace electronics from about 30 years ago.
They really need to be built to aerospace standards to generate any confidence in the eye of joe public or even experts. This, though, will probably make it prohibitively expensive. However, even aerospace standard electronics fails.
Agreed, the units are not safety critical, but when it comes to owing or not owing the government money I very much doubt that HMG will be lenient to people whose unit has failed!
|
|
|
|
|
PAYG Insurance and Road Charging?
The Govt got their fingers burned with the Poll Tax as a high no. of people avoided registering & therefore paying.
Easiest route for Road tax is to put it on the petrol then the Govt has only gor a few big oil companies to get the money from and not tens of millions of ordinary motorists and millions of uninsured, no road tax, no MOT cowboys (&girls).
Tax has to be simple and collectable - metering & billing is none of these.
PAYG Insurance can be OK for the law abiding but not until the technology beds down.
|
|
ISTR it was in the region of 60 quid a month minimum to cover the price of the box and systems - with 100 'daytime' miles thrown in.
|
"Although the Norwich Union pilot is for all age groups, it has been offering a Young Driver policy using the black box technology since January. Soaring insurance costs are a major problem for younger drivers. The policy, aimed at 18 to 21-year-olds, sets a third of the premium on an annual basis, but then charges according to usage, with the highest tariff at mini-cab rates of £1 per mile after 11pm. The best young drivers pay for their insurance at 6p per mile, with the first 100 miles of daytime driving free."
From the Telegraph Money section.
More
details here
|
|
|
Oh look, the black box has failed again. Never mind Sir, here have another one.
Now where did I put that battery energiser. I wonder what 8,000 volts will do to a 12 volt circuit?
|
From that article, it seems to be getting even more big-brotherish.
Norwich Union acknowledged that my mileage and time of usage was very low risk, but said it would need to study which roads I drove on to get the full picture, but this data will not be collated until the autumn
|
|
|
|
|
|
