Save 50% on your insurance by driving less

Driving less is the best way to prevent having a car accident. When you're on the road less, you're just less likely to crash your car (or have someone crash into you). So your insurance company has a vested interest in making you pay more if you drive a lot.

Unfortunately, this one factor, the most important in determining the likelihood of having an accident, is very difficult for insurance companies to gauge. They can't come by and check everyone's odometer. So, as it stands, insurance companies don't vary their premiums very much because they can't trust people to tell them how much they do or don't drive.

But that may now change. GM drivers can now opt-in to a program that sends their mileage statistics to GMAC. And if the yearly mileage is under 15,000, GMAC will reduce its rates up to 54%.

It's part of GM's OnStar program. And, if it sounds like a possible violation of privacy to you, it kinda is. That's why you have to choose to join the program. Still, it's a little creepy ... basically paying you for personal information about your driving habits. Not that insurance companies haven't been delving deep into our privacy since the beginning of time. We'll see how long it is before they start keeping track of where you drive and whether you speed.

Nonetheless, I like the program, if only because it's a more fair way to insure vehicles. Oh, and because it uses some pretty cool technology to give people one more reason to drive less.