New York’s Driver-Tracking Program Kicks Off

Driving habits of around 400 people are being tracked by New York City in a bid to better understand the driving habits of the Big Apple’s residents. During the test factors like their peak driving teams, speeds and even how much gas they use will be tracked. This program is called Drive Smart and for participating drivers get up to 30 percent discount on their Allstate auto insurance as well as “incentive rewards valued at $25.”

Data will also be collected on when drivers make a sharp turn or brake hard, says the New York Department of Transportation, with the aim of this exercise being to understand how people living in this great city drive everyday.

Ultimately the goal is to use this data to solve traffic problems such as the infamous New York City traffic, drivers can get educated on their habits as well by using applications like Commute Greener, Dash and Metropia.

This pilot program is going to be run for an entire year, it will end in August 2016, and for the entire duration drivers will need to leave a device plugged into their car’s OBD-II port which has been standard on all cars since 1996.

The device is capable of beaming data to the driver’s handset as well as to Drive Smart’s cloud server, however it’s not compatible with electric or hybrid vehicles.

Some people have voiced privacy concerns given the fact that the possibilities exists the device plugged into OBD-II could get hacked, and then there’s the risk of driver information being leaked to the public. Hopefully nothing of that sort will happen during the program’s duration.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: new york city