In California, Your Savings Opportinites Are Limited By Law
California is one of the few holdouts in the usage based insurance market, so although you can install trackers into your cars, there are fewer options for savings. In many ways, the argument goes that California does not have true UBI. The CA Department of Insurance does not allow usage based rating factors, and pricing for auto insurance in the Golden State is based on 1989's Proposition 103, which sets very strict rules for the way car insurance gets priced. Therefore, the number of miles you drive is pretty much the only thing you can track with such a device. .
Insurance officials are concerned about privacy (and remember this is a state where entering you ZIP code to prove that you didn’t steal a credit card is considered illegal) and penalties for things beyond a driver's control, such as the need to drive at night and chronic alcoholism in school bus drivers. In order to make a change to Prop 103 there would need to be a two thirds majority vote in the legislature, which is pretty much the equivalent of getting peace in the Middle East, and honest mechanic, and a shopping cart with 4 working wheels.
What this means for Californians is that they will be paying for car insurance on factors like their occupation, education, whether they rent or own homes, their income, and their marital status. All of these factors can be decried as racist, sexist, or discriminator in one way or another. The solution, which involves charging people based on the way they drive, is blocked in a state that famously stands up for the rights of just about any group. Over the past few years, other Big Data signals have come into the mix of risk assessment, such as neighborhood, the type of car you drive, and the number of times you have competed in the Cannonball Run.
Discounts Based on Actuarial Data and Paybacks
If you wonder why companies may send you a "check" for safe driving, or offer accident forgiveness, then you have to remember the regulatory environment. Good drivers still subsidize bad ones, and in California (and other states) the way to keep good drivers on the books is to offer a kickback. In the same way that so-called experts tell you that getting a tax return is bad because you’re loaning the government money, getting a check from your insurer means that you may actually be overpaying, and should be getting a discount instead.