Truth & fiction

Cap'n Jack

Final Approach
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Cap'n Jack
The fiction:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nphys3028

The truth"
A smartphone app that measures when you brake and accelerate in your car. The algorithm that analyzes your social media accounts for risky behavior. The program that calculates your life expectancy using your Fitbit.

This isn’t speculative fiction — these are real technologies being deployed by insurance companies right now. Last year, the life insurance company John Hancock began to offer its customers the option to wear a fitness tracker — a wearable device that can collect information about how active you are, how many calories you burn, and how much you sleep. The idea is that your Fitbit or Apple Watch can tell whether or not you’re living the good, healthy life — and if you are, your insurance premium will go down.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/10/...l?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

I wonder if the short story was published before, or after this patent from State Farm:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20150286929A1/en
They date to the same year.
 
My insurance company offered me an OBD reader to get a possible discount. One of the things it measured was heavy braking, considering how often tourists decide to pull their RV out in front of traffic on the highway here I politely declined their offer.
 
But what if I wear my Fitbit on the wrist of the hand that I use to eat pizza, drink beer, and smoke with. Would all that motion indicate that I’m moving a lot and therefore healthy?
 
My insurance company offered me an OBD reader to get a possible discount. One of the things it measured was heavy braking...

If that's all they measured then I'm OK since I have more of a momentum car. Now if they downloaded history of my boost gauge readings, then no thank you. :)
 
But what if I wear my Fitbit on the wrist of the hand that I use to eat pizza, drink beer, and smoke with. Would all that motion indicate that I’m moving a lot and therefore healthy?
Or other fast repetitive movements??:rolleyes:
 
Sometime around 1975 , I read a short story in "Cycling" magazine. It was about 2 guys that were tired of taking their motorcycles to the local, EPA approved, "SIM" track.

So, they went off-roading for reelz! They were shot by government EPA enforcement teams.

I don't think we're quite there yet. But, we're getting closer....
 
Sometime around 1975 , I read a short story in "Cycling" magazine. It was about 2 guys that were tired of taking their motorcycles to the local, EPA approved, "SIM" track.

So, they went off-roading for reelz! They were shot by government EPA enforcement teams.

I don't think we're quite there yet. But, we're getting closer....
The difference is...we are letting private companies monitor us .
I rented a car last week with a GPS; it warned me I was going over the speed limit and I wondered if the car was going to narc me out. I could see the rental agency charging me extra for extra wear or something.
 
The difference is...we are letting private companies monitor us .
I rented a car last week with a GPS; it warned me I was going over the speed limit and I wondered if the car was going to narc me out. I could see the rental agency charging me extra for extra wear or something.

Full rental power!!!
 
The difference is...we are letting private companies monitor us .
I rented a car last week with a GPS; it warned me I was going over the speed limit and I wondered if the car was going to narc me out. I could see the rental agency charging me extra for extra wear or something.
I'm not generally paranoid, but I did promptly neuter the onstar system when I bought my new truck.
 
I'll put my FitBit on my Labrador Retriever - they'll pay me to insure with 'em. . .

It has been a lot of trouble clobbering the intrusive systems on my phones and cars; now if we can some momentum going to drag ADS-B into a friendly court - maybe expose the FAA to some tech from this century.
 
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