Insurance co's OBDII "big brother" device not seeing any driving data

[Stasla]

I have Nationwide "on my side" and they have a SmartRide program, where they ship you an OBDII device that tracks your driving and give you 10% off premiums to start. If you drive like a grandma for about 6 months (a grandma that can still see well and so on - basically drive Super conservatively) Nationwide could increase that discount up to 30% - depending on how many red flags you set off during the 6 months: sudden acceleration/ braking, driving after midnight, etc. The discount will stay at least 10% for the life of the policy and the vehicle on it.

Other insurers, like Progressive, have similar products.

I got one of those things in my Model X and it was not registering any activity on their site after I drove around with it for about 2 months. Had them ship me another device, and this one is behaving the same way. Their site sees it installed, but no driving being reported.

With the long ass preamble out of the way, here's the question: anyone else have one of those things in their cars and does it work for you?

 

[Dazureus]

I've been delving into sniffing the CAN bus for a few weeks and there are some great threads on these forums about it. Here's the part that's pertinent to you. The OBDii under the drivers side dash doesn't have any CAN connections, just power and ground. Since the vehicle doesn't have a gas burning engine and no emissions, it's not beholden to the OBDii standards. Plugging a tracking device into that connector will power the device, but without the CAN pins, no data will be captured. There is a Tesla Diagnostic Connector under the center screen, but it doesn't use the same OBDii connector.

 

[Stasla]

I've been delving into sniffing the CAN bus for a few weeks and there are some great threads on these forums about it. Here's the part that's pertinent to you. The OBDii under the drivers side dash doesn't have any CAN connections, just power and ground. Since the vehicle doesn't have a gas burning engine and no emissions, it's not beholden to the OBDii standards. Plugging a tracking device into that connector will power the device, but without the CAN pins, no data will be captured. There is a Tesla Diagnostic Connector under the center screen, but it doesn't use the same OBDii connector.

That explains it! The device powers on and reports that it's installed, but doesn't see any data, if OBDII is not connected to CAN! Mystery solved!

Thank you!

 

[ccutrer]

When I signed up for Progressive, they listed the Tesla as not compatible with this discount.

 

[Colby Boles]

I work in the OBDII device industry and use a device from another insurer (Metromile) on my MX that does work. The reason it works is that it is just using the J1962 port for power (which @Dazureus pointed out is all that is present there really) and is using GPS along with a cellular radio to get your location. They claim to only be looking for miles traveled (as my insurance is billed per mile) and not speed and the other more contentious stuff, but who really knows. They did a pretty good job with the device in terms of being low power - it is below 1mA (IIRC) once the car hasn't been moving for a while. I have another unit in a 1993 F250 (no OBDII) powered from a lighter socket. I drive that very infrequently which is why I wanted to make sure the device didn't have very high drain.

Metromile was by far the cheapest insurer I could find for my MX based on my expected annual mileage. You might consider checking it out. I can't really vouch for how they are when you actually have a claim (thankfully), but they are basically a front to a more conventional auto insurance underwriter.

 

[mr blue sky]

Metromile was by far the cheapest insurer I could find for my MX based on my expected annual mileage. You might consider checking it out. I can't really vouch for how they are when you actually have a claim (thankfully), but they are basically a front to a more conventional auto insurance underwriter.

I have the same situation with a Model S and Metromile also turned out to be the cheapest. I haven't had any problems with battery drain even with my previous vehicle (a 2012 Audi A4 that has some sort of "power management"), even when I didn't drive the vehicle for two months. I should add that recently Metromile acquired an insurer so when your policy renews they will handle the claims themselves now, supposedly improving the customer service experience.

 

[stillageek]

We had the progressive devices about 5 years ago on our Prius. We got the full 25% discount. It carries forward as long as we are customers. For those with a Tesla on order...if you have a current ICE vehicle...order the monitoring device now. We currently have a LEAF and I3 with a Model X on order. There's no current option for us to get "re-monitored" and glad we can't. With regen (especially the I3) the monitor would record several "abrupt stops"....not to mention the fun I have accelerating with the I3.

 

[Stasla]

We had the progressive devices about 5 years ago on our Prius. We got the full 25% discount. It carries forward as long as we are customers. For those with a Tesla on order...if you have a current ICE vehicle...order the monitoring device now. We currently have a LEAF and I3 with a Model X on order. There's no current option for us to get "re-monitored" and glad we can't. With regen (especially the I3) the monitor would record several "abrupt stops"....not to mention the fun I have accelerating with the I3.

PSA: Nationwide allows you to re-enroll if you want to give it another shot to get a better discount.