Progressive MyRate drive-monitoring device goes national

[TheTodd]

This is a little scary, I could see down the road that these would be
mandatory to get insurance.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/28/progressive-myrate-drive-monitoring-device-goes-national/

Progressive insurance has been testing out the MyRate driving
monitoring system for a few years now (it used to be called
TripSense), but it's finally taking the system national, bringing pay-
as-you-drive insurance into the mainstream. The little blue box plugs
into your car's ODB II diagnostic port (all cars made after 1996 have
one), and studiously records your driving habits, wirelessly sending
the data back to Progressive HQ (it's not clear exactly how). Every
six months, Progressive will crunch the numbers and issue a new rate
for you based on how you drive -- savings of up to 40 percent are
possible. That's pretty tempting, depending on your current rates and
driving habits, but we're not so sure we're willing to share that much
data for an unspecified discount -- especially since we're confident
the MyRate box will get cracked almost immediately.