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Drivers of cars made by General Motors, Ford, Honda and other popular brands say their insurance rates increased after the companies sent data about their driving behavior to issuers without their knowledge.
Kenn Dahl, 65, is a Seattle-area businessman. who told the New York Times that his auto insurance costs soared 21% in 2022 after GM’s OnStar Smart Driver computer system installed in his Chevy Bolt collected information on the details of his driving habits.
Dahl said his insurance agent told him the price increase was based on data collected by LexisNexis, which compiled a report that tracked every time he and his wife drove their Chevy Bolt over a six-month period.
According to Dahl, the 258-page report contained information on the start and end times of their trips, distance traveled and other data detailing possible instances of speeding, harsh braking and harsh acceleration.
The report contained information about a particular trip taken in June that lasted 18 minutes and covered 7.33 miles.
During that same trip, the LexisNexis report recorded two instances of rapid acceleration and two incidents of hard braking.
The LexisNexis report indicated that the details it had cobbled together were obtained from OnStar Smart Driver, GM’s proprietary subscription service that records driver information such as total miles driven, incidents of hard braking and other aspects of driver behavior.
According to its website, OnStar Smart Driver “provides driving insights on how to become a smarter, safer driver” while allowing users to “earn badges by completing challenges, taking advantage of specific streaks of different driving habits, and viewing all your data in an intuitive Control Panel”.
“It felt like a betrayal,” Dahl said. “They’re taking information I didn’t know was going to be shared and ruining our insurance.”
It’s not just electric vehicle owners complaining.
A Cadillac driver based in Palm Beach County, Florida, told the Times that he is considering filing a lawsuit against GM after seven different companies denied him auto insurance in December.
He said he plans to sell his Cadillac and will never buy another GM-made car again.
The decision was based on a LexisNexis report that detailed six months of his driving behavior, including numerous instances of harsh braking, harsh acceleration and speeding.
“I don’t know the definition of a hard brake. My passenger’s head doesn’t hit the dashboard,” the anonymous driver of the Cadillac, who like Dahl was enrolled in the OnStar Smart Driver subscription service, told the Times.
“The same goes for acceleration. I’m not going to take off. I’m not sure how the car defines that. “I don’t feel like I’m driving aggressively or dangerously.”
GM, whose portfolio of brands includes Chevy, GMC, Cadillac and Buick, is not the only car company that collects data through Internet connectivity and then provides it to insurance companies.
Subaru, Mitsubishi, Honda, Kia and Hyundai also offer drivers the option to activate similar features without them knowing that the data is sold to brokers similar to LexisNexis.
Verisk said it has accessed driver data from millions of vehicles, including those made by Ford, Honda and Hyundai.
A Ford spokesperson told the Times that the company “does not transmit any connected vehicle data to any of the partners,” referring to Verisk and LexisNexis.
Ford will only share driver behavior data with an insurance company if the driver gives explicit consent through a touchscreen in the vehicle.
Kia, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Honda and Acura allow drivers to disable the collection of data related to road behavior in their apps.
But Honda requires drivers to agree to a 2,000-word “terms and conditions” screen in its app that specifies that the company will share data with Verisk.
The Post has sought comment from Honda.
“GM’s OnStar Smart Driver service is optional for customers, who consent three times before sharing limited data with an insurance company through a third party,” a GM spokesperson told The Post.
“Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance which, with their consent, can be used to obtain insurance quotes,” the spokesperson said, adding: “Customers can also cancel their enrollment in Smart Driver at any time.
A LexisNexis spokesperson told the Times that the information it gets from OnStar is “for insurers to use as one factor among many to create more personalized insurance coverage.”