• cm0002@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The motion sensors in your phone are able to pull enough information to determine, with high accuracy, whether or not you’re the one behind the wheel.

    (X) Doubt

    • ch00f@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      Don’t worry. The next paragraph provided an email address where you can send reports of inaccuracies for them to review.

      • fiercekitten@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Jfc my heart goes out to everyone who is financially coerced into getting one of these policies. This is not okay. People who have a voice need to push back on this. Your own devices should never be used against you.

    • Carighan Maconar@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yeah was about to say, my phone can’t even tell whether I’m walking or cycling or taking a bus, I have exactly 0 hope it could tell whether I’m driving or not other than not being connected to my car’s bluetooth which will be exactly what they are doing here of course!

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Oh good, then I’m safe. My phone doesn’t connect to my car’s Bluetooth unless is configure it every drive.

      • jaxxed@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I think that we are talking about insurance policies that make you install an app on your phone directly. The app publishes directly to the Internet.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Motion sensors don’t provide localization. Gps on cellphones are only really accurate to a few dozen meters.

      You can couple gps and motion (and changes in gps location) to fudge it. Which is why when you diverge off the route navigation provides… it takes it a moment to figure it out. In the display, they “know” you’re on the road so it doesn’t have to be that accurate, they just guess what lane you’re in based on direction and such.

      They’re certainly not going to know what seat you’re in.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          And how does the phone know if you just take left turns faster? How does it know if you’re in the left or right lane? It has no way of knowing what the forces are, or if that variation is caused by something else.

          Your phone has no idea which side of the car it’s on, and insurance companies and their apps really don’t care.

        • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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          5 months ago

          How do centrifugal forces determine which seat you’re sitting in inside of a car? Everyone in the car is going to be experiencing the same forces.

          • Wrench@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            He is correct that the forces are different. The equation for centripetal force is Fc = Mv2/R.

            Radius is the distance from the focal point, and each seat will be different distances.

            So he is technically correct that seat position could be calculated in perfect conditions with accurate measurements.

            But none of the data that reaches this service will be remotely accurate or complete enough to make that determination. It will only have one passengers phone data, and even if it collected everyones phone data, phone sensors have a margin of error well above what the difference would be. GPS data is only even marginally accurate up to something like 6ft, and really not even then. Then cars have a lot of other factors like suspension and compression in seats, etc, that would absorb enough of the forces to muddy the data even if accurate sensors were everywhere.

            Tl;dr; another cocky person that took a few physics courses but walked away with a poor understanding of real world applications talking out their ass.

    • Hubi@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I always place my phone in the center console anyways, there would be zero way to tell who is driving. Not that I’d ever install such an app…

        • Hubi@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I mean it wouldn’t really make a difference if the phone is in my pocket and I’m sitting still or if the phone is in the center console.

          • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
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            5 months ago

            If the gyroscope moves while the car is in motion, they can be pretty sure that you’re not driving. Or you’re texting and driving, but if the car is going a certain speed and you’re texting, you’re going to have bigger problems very soon.

    • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      doubt, but I’d believe it.

      If we can tell if we are in the front or backseat due to how it feels when you go around corners and such, so can your phone.

      driver side vs passenger would be the same deal.

      of course, this is presuming the phone is on your person. Which, if you weren’t driving - it would be.

    • lightnsfw@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      What if my phone is sitting in the cup holder in the center console… What if I sit it on the passenger seat and it slides of on a turn and slams into the dash? Will they assume I’ve been in some horrible accident.

    • ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I love how there’s all these science and software experts who think this is impossible, when it is clearly very easily possible. It’s not a question of if it’s good (it isn’t) or if they should (they shouldn’t).

      Hiding your heads in the sand and collectively saying they can’t - in a pro-privacy group - is insane. It’s like reading about how you can hack an air gapped computer and having a bunch of Amish say it’s impossible.

      Maybe figure out how they are first, then talk about what to do about it. But this collective “nuh-uh!” is nuts.

      • cm0002@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Nobody said it’s impossible, its not possible with the consumer grade hardware in your phone and what an app will have access to. Sometimes it even has issues just figuring out if you’ve turned your phone to landscape or not

        Also, nobody said they weren’t going to try, the claim that they can do it with any degree of accuracy is BS

          • cm0002@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            You should look in a mirror, because you’re the densest one here, you’re just not getting it

            It’s possible with high precision sensors in a device meant for that purpose i.e. NOT your average phone

            Its NOT possible with any sort of degree of accuracy with the commodity grade sensors available in most consumer available devices

            The “app” that they “pinky promise” is accurate, isn’t. It can tell when you’re moving and coupled with GPS even what speed and that’s about it. Any promises about being able to determine where you are in the vehicle are a lie.

            The sensors built-in to your phone are done so for the job of determining the position of the device relative to YOU the PERSON NOT relative to where YOU AND your phone ARE in the physical space i.e. is it in your pocket, are you trying to rotate to landscape, is it upside down. NOT where you and your phone together are in physical space i.e. what seat you’re in.