Do UBI Devices Harm Your Car?
A somewhat unexpected twist in the world of usage based insurance is the concept that the device may run down your battery or cause damage to your vehicle’s electrical system. Anecdotal reports of drivability issues, burned out wires, and dead batteries are coupled with one UBI device recall related to unexpected stalling. In Florida, a class-action lawsuit is arguing that multiple drivers may have suffered losses as a result of issues created by the UBI device.
For the claim that UBI devices can run down your car battery, there may be some merit. If the device is communicating with an insurance company through cellular signals, there is the potential to drain power. Whether the UBI works when the car is off is a different question, but considering that there may be a GPS antenna, accelerometer, gyroscope, and cellphone technology in such an innocuous looking device may provide a clue.
The open question about UBI and its reliance on OBD-II (Onboard Diagnostic) ports is whether these interfaces were designed for long-term connections. Automotive designers would certainly have been thinking that their monitoring port was expected to be used in the environment of a repair bay or auto shop. The vehicle would have been in Park or Neutral, and the information would be intended for a code reader. Since 1996, vehicle emissions and repair shops have utilized the OBD-II as intended, but the wired nature of the technology means that it wasn’t continuously connected, and did not include additional hardware. When the device is continuously monitoring vehicle performance, it could be interfering with many mission-critical systems. Car electrical systems may simply not have been designed to handle the load or a monitoring device that is always on.
Recalls For Automotive Issues
In a previous case, a safety recall for a tracking device was issued because it shut off cars while they were driving down the road. The issue was traced to problems involving the electrical system in some vehicles, which caused cars to stop running in normal conditions. New complaints involve popular telematics-based insurance vendors and may lead to an examination of the OBD-II port as the basis for monitoring cars that are in motion. For car owners, guidance on which vehicle models are susceptible to erratic performance may go a long way toward deciding whether to try and save money on auto insurance with usage-based tools, or to stick with the credit and ZIP code based risk assessment.