How does a Black Box track your car? Your black box uses GPS to find the location of your vehicle - this is usually used to check what roads you have been using and the time of day you have been driving, which can affect your driving score.
Most installed black boxes can also act as a tracker and can make it easier to retrieve your car if it's stolen. Some installed black boxes also offer accident alerts which tell the emergency services your location if they detect you've experienced a serious impact.
The Black Box depicts data such as how fast your car was going, the position of the throttle, brake application, airbag deployment, seatbelt use, steering angles and a range of other factors as they were about 20 seconds before, during and 20 seconds after the crash.
The telematics device, installed by a specialist Black Box engineer hired by Think Insurance, works by monitoring how the car is driven. It does not actively monitor the actual person driving the car, and therefore it cannot distinguish between who is driving.
The device records a car's speed, the distance it travels, how it accelerates and brakes, and what time of the day or night the car is used. All this information builds a profile of the driver that the insurance company uses to work out how much of a risk they are to insure.
The box monitors speed, acceleration, braking, cornering and phone usage.
Whilst it might be difficult to think straight when you've been involved in a car accident, maintain road safety is still important. Your black box will continue to record everything that you do following the accident and it is important to follow the correct procedures.
How long do I have a black box for? Your black box is in use for as long as you have the policy. As with typical car insurance policies, black box insurance tends to last 12 months. If you choose to renew with your insurer, your black box should stay active.
With a black box insurance policy, the device is an invisible passenger on every drive you take, recording data about your driving. Speed is one metric the black box records and your insurer considers when setting your premiums. Sticking within the speed limit can help you earn discounts.
Furthermore, a car's black box does not record any audio such as in the case of the aircraft's CVR. While the automotive black box does not record as much data as the aircraft black box, it is still capable of recording an abundance of data.
Retrieving the data
It usually takes 10-15 days to analyse the data recovered from the black boxes. Meanwhile investigators look for other clues such as taking accounts from air traffic control personnel and recordings of the conversation between ATC and the pilots' moments before the crash.
In a non-deployment event the collision has produced forces heavy enough to trigger a recording. In late model vehicles with a "Delta V" (change in velocity) of 5 mph the collision force is large enough to wake up the "Black Box" and trigger a recording.
But, if you've got a professionally-fitted black box, you'll usually be given two options. As soon as the policy ends, the black box will be switched off, and it can remain on your car forevermore if you're fine with that. You can get it removed if you want, but naturally, you'll be expected to pay for the removal.
The GPS tracking system within your telematics device works in real time, so yes, it can see your location while you are driving. This is an excellent tool if your vehicle is unfortunately stolen as we can track where it is and alert the authorities.
Some people suggest tampering with the device or temporarily unplugging it in order to maintain their driving records and discounts. But there's no way to “trick” a telematics device that doesn't invalidate your insurance. It's also insurance fraud, which is a crime.
However if you don't manage to improve and your Driver Score continues below an acceptable level, you'll receive another Red Alert from us. If you get three Red Alerts it means we consider you to be an unsafe driver, your policy may be cancelled by us sending you 7 days notice by letter or email.
What is a good score on black box insurance? You may think if you don't get a score of 100 on a journey, you've driven badly – but this isn't the case. Anything that is marked green means overall in the journey, that aspect of your driving was good. (and over 95% of journeys our customers have are green!
What's a good score? Scores of 50 or higher can be considered good scores and may qualify you for auto insurance discounts.
While each black box is fitted with a battery with a six-year life span, once the locator beacon is activated, it can only send out pings for 30 days.
While fitting a black box might not make your car insurance cheaper straight away, you could be rewarded with a discount if you continue to drive sensibly and safely. After you've been driving for at least a year, you could see a reduction of as much as 60%, although this can vary significantly from driver to driver.
One of the black boxes, the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), records radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit while the other, the Flight Data Recorder (FDR), monitors parameters such as altitude, airspeed, and heading.
Absolutely. However, as removing a telematics device isn't essential, this won't be included in your policy. If you're certain you'd like your device removed from your car, we can arrange for an engineer to remove it for you at an extra cost.
Of course, if you want the black box removed, you can speak to the provider and they'll arrange for an engineer to come out and remove it. But removal isn't usually covered by your insurance policy, so you'll likely face an extra fee.