OBD insurance

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I'll be picking up my SE this month and planning to get set up with Metromile for insurance, as it seems to be the best option for folks that don't put tons of miles in.

They operate by plugging in an OBD device that monitors your mileage and driving behavior.

I'm wondering if anyone else has used a similar service and how it's impacted battery life. I'm told that the car doesn't fully switch off if anything's plugged in to OBD, which seems... pretty bad.

They offer an alternate solution, which plugs into the cigarette adapter and presumably captures less data. I imagine that would also not prevent the car from turning off.

The manual also states that the alarm will go off if the car is locked while something is plugged into OBD, but Bimmercode seems to list an option to disable that.
 
You're not wrong, but I think the MINI connected service is capturing similar data... which is probably why it's free. See page 10-12 in the manual.
 
I don't have the alarm so can't comment on leaving the OBD installed but I have had a lot of trouble trying to read data from the MINIs OBD port (EVs are not required to comply with the OBD standards). So far only one alpha build app can read any of the PIDs from the MINI.

If you do end up going with the OBD option, I'd be interested to hear if it can actually read any data from the car.
 
Carsten Haase said:
I don't have the alarm so can't comment on leaving the OBD installed but I have had a lot of trouble trying to read data from the MINIs OBD port (EVs are not required to comply with the OBD standards). So far only one alpha build app can read any of the PIDs from the MINI.
If you do end up going with the OBD option, I'd be interested to hear if it can actually read any data from the car.
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I haven't noticed any issues (so far) using the combination of the OBDLink CX product (https://www.obdlink.com/products/obdlink-cx/) with the BimmerCode app (https://www.bimmercode.app). But I admit to actually knowing little about what I am doing (aka, a recipe for disaster) -- is this hardware & software a combination that you have tried with the SE?
 
Texas22Step said:
I haven't noticed any issues (so far) using the combination of the OBDLink CX product (https://www.obdlink.com/products/obdlink-cx/) with the BimmerCode app (https://www.bimmercode.app). But I admit to actually knowing little about what I am doing (aka, a recipe for disaster) -- is this hardware & software a combination that you have tried with the SE?
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BimmerCode works fine but reading sensors like speed or battery percentage does not (not something BimmerCode is intended to do).

The BimmerCode developer makes an app called BimmerLink which is supposed to read sensor data but it does not work (per the dev, EVs are not supported for sensor data yet).

The SE reports it's sensor data in a different format than the ICE car and this new format still needs to be decoded. Not an impossible task but only two apps have done this so far, and only for some sensors.
 
Regarding the insurance, Metromile will send a 12v adapter to plug their tracker into so you can use that instead of the OBD port. I plugged it into the 12v jack in the boot and ran the wire to the under-floor storage, it’s pretty tidy. I’m guessing it captures less private data this way too.

Regarding Bimmercode, I would like to try it to turn off the acoustic pedestrian sound, and the sound for the parking sensors. Not sure the latter is an option though. I can give it a shot and report back.
 
endquote said:
I'm wondering if anyone else has used a similar service and how it's impacted battery life. I'm told that the car doesn't fully switch off if anything's plugged in to OBD, which seems... pretty bad.
Click to expand...
I believe it likely an ODB dongle may keep the car from going to sleep, so it might keep discharging the 12 V battery. When I was having my 12 V battery discharge issue diagnosed, the technician asked if I had anything plugged in the ODB port.
 
I have had a Bluetooth dongle plugged into my OBD port for at least a year and haven’t had any 12V battery issues. But I’ve rarely left my car for more than a couple days without charging or driving it, so maybe it just hasn’t had a chance to discharge.
 
endquote said:
I'll be picking up my SE this month and planning to get set up with Metromile for insurance, as it seems to be the best option for folks that don't put tons of miles in.

They operate by plugging in an OBD device that monitors your mileage and driving behavior.

I'm wondering if anyone else has used a similar service and how it's impacted battery life. I'm told that the car doesn't fully switch off if anything's plugged in to OBD, which seems... pretty bad.

They offer an alternate solution, which plugs into the cigarette adapter and presumably captures less data. I imagine that would also not prevent the car from turning off.

The manual also states that the alarm will go off if the car is locked while something is plugged into OBD, but Bimmercode seems to list an option to disable that.
Click to expand...
I feel that letting insurance see how you drive is pretty much digging your own grave
 
Puppethead said:
I believe it likely an ODB dongle may keep the car from going to sleep, so it might keep discharging the 12 V battery. When I was having my 12 V battery discharge issue diagnosed, the technician asked if I had anything plugged in the ODB port.
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I think you may be right, that's why I'm using the 12v socket in the boot instead. There's an LED on it which goes out when the car goes off, so I'm pretty sure it's not still draining power.

Smart Wannabe said:
I feel that letting insurance see how you drive is pretty much digging your own grave
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Maybe so, but it's about half the cost. And I kind of drive like an old person anyway.
 
endquote said:
Maybe so, but it's about half the cost. And I kind of drive like an old person anyway.
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Half cost is relative, perhaps half cost of company X plans that artificially inflate non-monitored plans. I try to avoid companies that market or have a business model like that. If you shop around, you will find the real world cost is about the same as company Y that does not market monitor plans and simply sells insurance without a lot of marketing flare... . Monitoring is a business model that assumes that when the big guy is always looking over your shoulder may give one pause. Any savings are not passed on to the customer, however.

In the real world, these OBD monitors don't reduce claims as 1) folks seem to think they are driving safe regardless, 2) folks still drive stupid in slippery conditions, and 3) distracted driving and poor driving skill accidents far overshadow racing or aggressive driving accidents. The OBD device isn't going to make a dent into that, but the newer vehicle system may help protect us from ourselves.

Ah but thats science and statistics, and no one seem to trust that now days :) But trust marketing... sure...
 
ColdCase said:
If you shop around, you will find the real world cost is about the same
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Ok, then who would you recommend? All I know is I compared policies between Allstate and Metromile and Allstate was double. This could be inflated, or it could just be they assume you'll drive a lot, whereas the monitored version just charges per actual mile driven.
 
Try geico. I live in sf as well and I find them the cheapest. I check from to time and everyone else is higher.
 
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