This week's 'Ask Evan' question comes from Michelle S. Michelle asks, "I keep seeing ads from different car insurance companies about getting lower prices by installing a monitoring system in your car. How does that work?"
A number of different companies offer that driving monitoring feature for your car. I checked with a local contact at State Farm Insurance for more information on theirs. Essentially, their unit is called a Beacon and is installed in you vehicle. The device does not know where you are like a GPS nor can it recover a vehicle if it is stolen.
However, the device does keep track of how many miles are driven, as well as driving habits. Those habits include, what time of the day travel is done, how many right turns are made and how many left turns. It also keeps track of how quickly the driver hits the brakes and accelerates.
State Farm offers an initial five percent discount for using the Beacon and then additional discounts are calculated on the driving information that has been gathered. As driving information is gathered, the driver can access their 'driving grade' to see how they are doing and how to make improvements
Other insurance companies offer similar devices that may work differently, but this is how State Farm handles the information.
If you have a question you'd like to ask send me an email to AskEvan@FOX.com. Put 'Ask Evan' in the subject line. You can also reach out on Facebook at Evan Forrester FOX43. Whatever the topic I'll do my best to track down answers you are looking for.