Pay As You Go Insurance?

Progressive Insurance is offering to use the way that people actually drive to determine their rates. They plan on doing so by installing the equivalent of a "black box" that records how often you hit the brakes, how fast you accelerate, the rate of speed, etc.

While this seems like a better way of determining rates than using a credit score, level of education or race, insurance companies and software have a history of not mixing to your advantage. For years, insurers have used a program called "Collossus," which they used to artificially lower settlement rates. It isn't hard for us to imagine them figuring out how to tweak the information gathered so it skews in their favor.