Allstate Insurance Secures Patent for Car Interior Data Collection - September, 2015

Allstate Insurance Company recently secured a patent for “traffic-based driving analysis” technology to record “potential sources of driver distraction within the vehicle (e.g. pets, phone usage, unsecured objects in vehicle),” which would also ”gather[] information on the number and types of passengers — whether adults, children or teenagers,” as well as “the driver’s eye and head positions and the ‘physical or mental state of the driver, such as fatigue or intoxication,’ which could be determined by ‘sensors that detect the content of alcohol in the air or blood-alcohol content of the driver, such as a breathalyzer’ and ‘could also include audio that could pick up a cranked-up stereo or animated passengers.’”

A company spokeswoman said the “technology would provide drivers with broader information about traffic conditions and external factors that could better equip them to drive safe.”

Source:  Becky Yerak (of the Chicago Tribune), “‘Spy car’ worries raised by new Allstate patent,” detnews.com, September 1, 2015: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/09/01/spy-car-worries-raised-new-allstate-patent/71554318/