In the near future, your TomTom satnav unit could be snitching on you to your insurance company.
TomTom is teaming up with UK-based insurance firm Motaquote for its first insurance product – a GPS unit called Fair Play that is designed to give safe drivers a lower premium.
Thomas Schmidt, managing director TomTom Business Solutions, says that the company will expand the Fair Play system to other insurance firms in Europe in 2012 in order to draw a larger customer base.
It’s a great product for safe drivers – since they already drive safe, they can use their good habits to secure better premiums. If you’re a bad driver… well, this isn’t the GPS system for you.
According to Schmidt, “Drivers using the insurance product will have a TomTom tracking unit fitted in their vehicles, allowing driver behaviour and habits to be monitored by insurers and by improving driving style, you can drive down your premiums.” To start up on the plan, you’d have to buy the TomTom tracking kit, but you’d start paying lower premiums right away… as long as you follow the feedback provided by the TomTom tracking device.
The Fair Play TomTom system is only available in Europe right now, but we can only assume that if it’s successful, it will be a matter of time before we can use it here in North America. Would you use this kind of GPS system to lower your insurance rates? Let us know in the comments section below.
[Source: Toronto Star]
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