AwesomeCapital

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Your car is secretly spying on you and driving your insurance rates through the roof: report

Drivers of cars manufactured by General Motors, Ford, Honda and other popular brands say that their insurance rates went up after the companies sent data about their driving behavior to issuers without their knowledge.

Kenn Dahl, 65, is a Seattle-area businessman who told The New York Times that his car insurance costs soared by 21% in 2022 after GM’s OnStar Smart Driver computerized system installed in his Chevy Bolt collected information about the particulars of his driving habits.

Dahl said that his insurance agent told him the price increase was based on data collected by LexisNexis, which compiled a report tracking each and every time he and his wife drove their Chevy Bolt over a six-month period.

According to Dahl, the 258-page report contained information about the start and end times of his trips, distance driven and other data detailing possible instances of speeding, hard braking and sharp accelerations.

The report contained information about one particular trip in June which lasted 18 minutes and spanned 7.33 miles

During that same trip, the LexisNexis report recorded two instances of rapid acceleration and two incidents of hard braking.

The LexisNexis report indicated that the details it had cobbled together were gleaned from the OnStar Smart Driver, the GM-owned subscription service that records driver information such as total miles driven, hard braking incident and other aspects of driver behavior.

According to its web site, OnStar Smart Driver “provides driving insights on how you can become a smarter, safer driver” while enabling users to “earn badges by completing challenges, build on streaks specific to different driving habits and view all your data in an intuitive dashboard.”

“It felt like a betrayal,” Dahl said. “They’re taking information that I didn’t realize was going to be shared and screwing with our insurance.”

It’s not just electric vehicle owners who are complaining.

A Cadillac driver based in Palm Beach County, Fla., told the Times that he is considering a lawsuit against GM after he was denied car insurance by seven different companies in December.

He said he is planning to sell his Cadillac and that he will never buy another GM-made car again.

The decision was based on a LexisNexis report which detailed six months of his driving behavior, including numerous instances of hard braking, hard accelerating and speeding.

“I don’t know the definition of hard brake. My passenger’s head isn’t hitting the dash,” the unnamed Cadillac driver, who like Dahl was enrolled in the OnStar Smart Driver subscription service, told the Times.

“Same with acceleration. I’m not peeling out. I’m not sure how the car defines that. I don’t feel I’m driving aggressively or dangerously.”

GM, whose portfolio of brands includes Chevy, GMC, Cadillac and Buick, isn’t the only car company that is gathering data through internet connectivity and then providing it to insurance companies.

Subaru, Mitsubishi, Honda, Kia and Hyundai also offer drivers the option of turning on similar features without them being aware that the data is being sold to brokers similar to LexisNexis.

Verisk said it has accessed driver data from millions of vehicles including those made by Ford, Honda and Hyundai.

A Ford spokesperson told the Times that the company “does not transmit any connected vehicle data to either partner” — a reference to Verisk and LexisNexis.

Ford will only share driver behavior data with an insurance company if the driver give explicit consent via an in-vehicle touch screen.

Kia, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Honda and Acura enable drivers to turn off data collection relating to on-road behavior in their apps.

But Honda requires drivers to accept a 2,000-word “terms and conditions” screen on its app that specifies the company will share data with Verisk.

The Post has sought comment from Honda.

“GM’s OnStar Smart Driver service is optional to customers, who give their consent three times before limited data is shared with an insurance carrier through a third party,” a GM spokesperson told The Post.

“Customer benefits include learning more about their safe driving behaviors or vehicle performance that, with their consent, may be used to obtain insurance quotes,” the spokesperson said, adding: “Customers can also unenroll from Smart Driver at any time.”

A LexisNexis spokesperson told the Times that the information it takes in from OnStar is “for insurers to use as one factor of many to create more personalized insurance coverage.”

https://nypost.com/2024/03/12/business/your-car-is-spying-on-you-and-upping-your-insurance-rates-report/

Auto safety group gives most hands-free driving systems ‘poor’ ratings

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced Tuesday that nearly all partial driving automation systems received “poor” ratings in a new ratings program designed to improve safety on the road.

The IIHS, an auto safety group, released the results of the first round of testing from its new ratings program. Of the 14 systems evaluated, 11 were rated “poor,” two were rated “marginal,” and one was rated “acceptable.” None received a “good” rating.

“We evaluated partial automation systems from BMW, Ford, General Motors, Genesis, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Tesla and Volvo. Most of them don’t include adequate measures to prevent misuse and keep drivers from losing focus on what’s happening on the road,” IIHS President David Harkey said in the announcement of the ratings.

The auto safety group evaluated 14 systems, some of which were used by the same automaker.

The Lexus Teammate with Advanced Drive system received an overall “acceptable” rating. IIHS evaluated a second Lexus system, however — the Lexus Dynamic Radar Cruise Control with Lane Tracing Assist — which received a “poor” rating.

The Nissan ProPILOT Assist with Navi-link, used in the 2023-24 Nissan Ariya, received a “marginal” overall rating, but the other Nissan system — the Nissan ProPILOT Assist 2.0 — received a “poor” rating.

The General Motors Super Cruise, used in the 2023-24 GMC Sierra, received a “marginal” rating.

The other systems that received “poor” ratings are BMW Active Driving Assistant Pro, Ford BlueCruise, Ford Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop & Go and Lane Centering Assist, Genesis Highway Driving Assist 2, Genesis Smart Cruise Control/Lane Following Assist, Mercedes-Benz Active Distance Assist DISTRONIC with Active Steering Assist, and Volvo Pilot Assist.

The Tesla Autopilot, Version 2023.7.10, and the Tesla Full Self-Driving (Beta), Version 2023.7.10, also received “poor” ratings, but IIHS noted that those two systems were evaluated before the most recent recall in December 2023.

The new ratings system comes amid heightened concerns about the rapid development of partially automated driving systems.

Experts have also raised concerns that the widespread, casual use of the phrase “self-driving” to refer to the systems might lead to heightened safety issues. All of the systems require drivers to keep both hands on the wheel while in use and to remain alert.

“Partial driving automation is a convenience feature that is meant to make long drives easier. There’s no evidence that it makes driving safer, and, in fact, it can create new risks by making it easier for the driver’s attention to wander,” according to the ratings system description.

The new IIHS ratings system incorporates some of these concerns into the categories on which the systems are evaluated.

The ratings categories evaluate driver monitoring, attention reminders, emergency procedures and other aspects of system design.

Harkey said that while the overall poor results are “worrying,” he was optimistic about the potential for tweaks to be made.

“These results are worrying, considering how quickly vehicles with these partial automation systems are hitting our roadways,” Harkey said. “But there’s a silver lining if you look at the performance of the group as a whole. No single system did well across the board, but in each category at least one system performed well. That means the fixes are readily available and, in some cases, may be accomplished with nothing more than a simple software update.”

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4527581-auto-safety-group-gives-most-hands-free-driving-systems-poor-ratings/

Bolstering Medical Device Production at Home

The COVID-19 pandemic forced our entire health care system into overdrive. Physicians, nurses, and hospital staff worked around the clock, risking their health and safety to care for others, while U.S. businesses and manufacturers ramped up production of everything from respirators to hand sanitizer. The pandemic revealed that our emergency response depends largely on those medical tools—and the only way to guarantee our access to critical supplies is to produce them here at home.

But our domestic production is slipping.

From IV infusions and anesthesia to cancer treatments and surgery, two-thirds of medical procedures require needles and syringes, totaling 10 million a day. In 2020 and 2021, syringe and needle manufacturing sites in Holdrege, Nebraska and Canaan, Connecticut surged production, delivering 2 billion injection devices to hospitals in the U.S. and to more than 40 countries worldwide.

Despite intense demand from our health care system, four of the six manufacturing sites for needles and syringes in the United States closed last year, leaving just one in Nebraska and one in Connecticut.

Why? In 2018, 15 percent of needles and syringes were imported. Today, that number is 40 percent. That change has resulted in a worrying dependence on low quality products shipped from overseas. It’s also reduced the manufacturing infrastructure required to sustain business in the United States.

As we learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on health care products produced outside the United States carries significant risks. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently investigating reports of faulty syringes made in China. Leaking or broken syringes have serious medical consequences, such as delivering the wrong dose of a medication—a potentially fatal mistake.

Unfortunately, problems with imported medical supplies aren’t rare. It is harder for U.S. regulators, like the FDA, to inspect foreign manufacturers. That means it’s impossible to hold these imported products to the same quality and safety standards as domestic products. In fact, the last time the agency inspected a Chinese hypodermic device manufacturing facility was in 2018. The FDA recently issued an advisory informing consumers of these potential syringe failures. While this is a good first step, we must do more to protect Americans’ health.

In July, we asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to increase support for domestic manufacturing and ensure that essential medical products can be produced in the U.S. We suggested several actions to accomplish this goal.

First, the FDA should inspect foreign manufacturing facilities more regularly. It should also enforce its existing rules regarding the compatibility of foreign-made products with domestic ones. In the event of problems, the agency should first communicate clearly to health care providers the need to report quality issues, and second, urge health systems that purchase faulty supplies to consider where products are made. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should also explore policies that incentivize providers to purchase domestic products, when available.

Additionally, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) should continue to support the domestic supply chain by investing in the U.S. manufacturing of critical health care products. ASPR should also explore ways to support the market for these products by stockpiling, through both vendor-managed inventory strategies and bulk purchases.

Lastly, Brazil, India, and China have enacted tariffs to protect their own manufacturing. The United States Trade Representative (USTR) should investigate the actions of Brazil, India, and China as part of the USTR’s four-year review. The USTR can then determine the best actions to level the playing field for American manufacturers.

Without a resilient domestic supply chain for medical supplies, we risk our nation’s crisis response, and the health of our citizens. The most effective way to ensure the quality of these products is to manufacture them in the U.S. If we don’t change course soon, we risk losing the last of our syringe manufacturing facilities, which would make the United States largely reliant on China—a mistake we can’t afford to make.

Pete Ricketts, a Republican, is a United States Senator from Nebraska and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, is a United States Senator from Connecticut.

https://www.realclearhealth.com/blog/2024/03/12/bolstering_medical_device_production_at_home_1017680.html

Sen. Bill Hagerty: Impact of illegals on concentration of political power at least 13 new congression seats

By Olivia Murray

Tennessee’s Senator Bill Hagerty recently went on Fox News for a segment with Maria Bartiromo, and discussed an oft-neglected topic regarding the impact of millions of illegal foreigners in, and still entering, America:

His appearance on Fox came after legislation he and other Republicans proposed was defeated by Democrats—the bill sought to prohibit the federal government from counting illegal aliens in the census, as that number is the basis for representative apportionment and the Electoral College. Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution reads:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers….

Furthermore, in the 14th Amendment we find this:

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State….

And, mere hours into taking office, Joe Biden signed an executive order ensuring that counting illegals in the next census was of paramount importance in his administration.

Early this year, I wrote an essay in which I actually highlighted this lurking problem:

First of all, voting districts are apportioned based on the population residing within the district, not the number of citizens, and not the number of registered voters….

This essay discussed a Freudian slip out of New York representative Yvette Clarke, who had blurted out the “need” for illegals, specifically in her district, for “redistricting purposes.” In hindsight, perhaps I should have given it more attention, because it seems as though many people don’t realize this is how our country works.

Now, if ten million were an accurate number (I suspect that’s a lowball), according to Hagerty, this translates to 13 new congressional seats—so where would these seats be, and what does that mean as far as the overall concentration of political power?

Well obviously, the deep-blue “sanctuary” jurisdictions amassing the newest hordes of illegals will get the new districts; and, these same deep-blue jurisdictions, which are well-oiled machines for election rigging, are poised to get a lot stronger at the federal level.

As many people have pointed out, the next census isn’t until 2030, but the issue isn’t just a Biden EO that needs to be revoked, the issue is a wholesale invasion (and a massive population of anti-American felons within our borders) in conjunction with the language in our Constitution—the solution is deporting literally every single illegal alien (man, woman, and child) and shoring up our border like never before; on this, compromise must not be considered.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/sen_bill_hagerty_impact_of_illegals_on_the_concentration_of_political_power_equals_at_least_13_new_congressional_seats.html

A week after primaries in California and they still haven't counted all the votes

By Monica Showalter

"Count all the votes!" as the lefties liked to say loudly.

That was their justification for mass mail-in ballots in California, ballot-harvesting by illegals, and extended voting for weeks and weeks. Election Day? No, election month. They said it was to expand the franchise to "marginalized communities" and raise turnout.

Curiously, turnout has now hit a near-record low in a presidential primary year as this Secretary of State supplied data makes clear. Before these new "innovations" were enacted, mostly in the era of COVID, it was not unusual to have turnout in such years in the 70% range. Today, they got ... 34%, just slightly above 2022's 33.2%, which wasn't a presidential primary election year.

Now we're onto the extended counting.

Count all the votes!

Except that they're not counting all the votes, they've got better things to do with their time than count ballots.

According to CalMatters:

The latest official tally from the Secretary of State’s office shows that more than 5.8 million ballots have been counted from California’s primary, with 1.7 million still to go.

Based on today’s updated umbers, the total of 7.5 million votes means a turnout of about 34%, well below the norm for presidential primaries, but not the record low that some analysts projected based on early numbers.

It also means that it’s going to be a while before some results are finalized, likely amplifying complaints that it takes too long to count votes in California. While voting by mail has been happening for a month, as long as ballots were postmarked by last Tuesday and they arrive at elections offices by this Tuesday, they will be counted. As expected, the votes being counted after primary day are trending more Democratic and younger.

They said they'd count all the votes -- and as of today, they haven't counted all the votes.

Which is funny stuff, because supposedly less-developed nations like Brazil, Argentina and Mexico, with much larger populations of voters, can count all its ballots overnight on 100% turnout in some cases, and still come up with a result that's fair and normal.

California can't. Might the inability to count the ballots on time the way normal countries do have something to do with why fewer people are voting?

It seems logical to me.

It's also interesting that turnout is so low even with junk-mail balloting is the law of the land in California -- mass mailed wherever an address can be claimed. It sounds as though effort-free voting is leading to no effort at all, nothing demanded of the voters.

And the bottom line here is that with all these measures with claimed benefits for democratic participation have led to less participation everywhere -- from voters, to vote counters.

But only one of these two things can be called culpable. The absence of voters amounts to an absence of confidence in the system, from how candidates are chosen to how ballots are counted. Lack of confidence equals low turnout, which for Democrats, is a good thing because dead districts as very low turnout precincts are called, allow for the placement of Democrats in power without accountability for either their unpopular ideas or their personal pocket-lining. Engaged electorates don't put up with that from their elected leaders but unengaged voters do.

Fact is, Democrats have elections just how they like them in California. The one thing now that lies in tatters is all their rhetoric about counting ballots and increasing turnout.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/a_week_after_primary_day_in_california_and_they_still_havent_counted_all_the_votes.html

Is Joe Biden ready for a big Haitian migrant flotilla?

By Monica Showalter

With the collapse of Haiti, the Biden administration has whipped out $300 million for an international aid effort, which like all the other ones, will probably go to beltway consultant contracts.

But true to form, it's doing very little about an expected migrant flotilla that is very likely to happen, even though it has authority to do so.

Witness this exchange between Rep. Matt Gaetz and three Pentagon officials associated with the region:

My transcription:

GAETZ: ...we can't really tell because the gangs are in charge, the government has been thrown out, and as a Florida man, I'm deeply concerned about this wave of people that we're about to have, that we are having, coming from Haiti, and it will accelerate. 'Cuz I've gone to Opa Locka and I've spent time with the folks that engaged in Operation Vigilant Century, and they say the number one push factor that drives these Haitians into Broward County, Palm Beach County, where they don't disperse throughout the country, they stay in southeast Florida, that that driving factor is the deterioration of conditions in Haiti. So, what are we doing to prepare for that wave and to ensure that these people are not paroled into the United States as the administration has done with people on the Southern border, but instead are repatriated back at the dock at Port-au-Prince?
ZIMMERMAN: Uh, congressman, we're doing a number of things to ensure that we're keeping track of the situation and we're prepared. At the moment, we have not yet seen large numbers, what we would characterize as a maritime mass migration. Umm, but (counterchatter) we are alert to that possibility. I think you're right that the driving conditions in Haiti could very well press more people. So, uh, we recently approved some additional assistance that we could provide to the Coast Guard, I, I, think that that has now fully been approved, we'll be providing notifications if we haven't already. Uh, uh, we'll provide shipboard assistance ...
GAETZ: Because I've talked to the Coast Guard and what they say would really support them would be more Naval vessels, would be DoD support. And because I think you correctly said there is an anticipated mass migration here, there are specific legal authorities that we can access, that I would implore you to access: Specifically, George W. Bush signed Executive Order, uh, 13276, and in that executive order, there is the ability for any president to designate an anticipated mass migration, and then get gray-hull Naval vessels into the Straits of Florida to deter that migration and then to repatriate those people before they get to Florida.

Notice how empty that room is even as a major crisis is about to hit the southeast United States with a new mass migration event. Gaetz is doing his job, but W-T-F is the rest of Congress?

Zimmerman appears to be Rebecca Zimmerman, whose Pentagon bio suggests she has her job in a temporary or provisional capacity:

Rebecca Zimmerman is Performing the Duties of the Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs. She is also the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs.

She doesn't do much about the southern border, so it's doubtful she's going to do anything about a Haitian mass migration event, either.

Now, it may not be within her authority to put out "gray hull" Naval ships to turn a flotilla back -- it sounds like the kind of command Joe Biden has to give, and won't.

But it does suggest an inadequate response is in the works from the Biden administration. Her response is pretty mealy-mouthed in terms of what is being done to stop a mass-migration flotilla (Shipboard assistance? What's that?) And Gaetz should have let her flesh out what she meant.

But he obviously wasn't getting the answer he was driving at which was an effective Naval response to a mass migration event from Haiti, which was why he jumped in.

I would have liked to have heard more of the exchange, because this is a pretty vital front-burner issue right now.

It's also complicated -- it's not like the lower middle class country-shopping exodus at the border, driven by cartel organizational muscle and profits, with more than 100 countries shipping their illegals on fake asylum claims. It is a specific emergency that requires provisions for refugees who, as real refugees, are willing to take any port in a storm (and yes, we are a first country of refuge), and who are willing to go back to their home countries when it's safe. Biden needs to be on the phone with every leader in the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America for an orderly plan to offer refuge to the terrified, a regional effort from all countries with a security interest in Haiti's stability need to be brought in to help the people fleeing gunfire, street burnings, gang barbarism, and quite possibly cannibals in their home country. Gaetz is very right to be focusing on this issue proactively but I differ from him in the regard that anyone fleeing by sea needs to be returned to Haiti as if they were some kind of miscreant or welfare-shopper.

Still, it's important to note that had Joe Biden not wantonly opened the border to all comers on those fake asylum claims, allowing as many as 20 million people in, bankrupting cities, and creating a vast NGO migrant industrial complex with an interest in perpetuating mass illegal migration, there wouldn't be the intense desire to prevent Haitians from entering the U.S. under this current emergency. Biden shot his wad on migrants, and in Florida, the sentiment is, 'no more' and 'we are full up.'

Now a real emergency is in the offing and Biden looks genuinely unprepared. None of this will stop a mass flotilla of refugees rolling into the U.S. with no control of who's getting in.

Do we have a list of countries that will take in refugees? Doesn't look like it? Better still, do we have a plan to create secure zones inside Haiti itself with the international expedition sponsored by the UN that seems to be in the works? It should not be dismissed that the safe zones could actually be created in Haiti to prevent a flotilla, if a serious U.S. response is made to stop the gangsters.

El Salvador has offered to solve the problem from its root, doing in Haiti what they did in short order in their own country if the UN is willing, throwing every bad guy in jail, and laying down authentic rule of law for law-abiding people to enjoy peace and security from. That offer ought to be taken seriously, because El Salvador would like to show the world what it can do to solve these kinds of problems. But of course, Joe Biden isn't even speaking to the president of El Salvador. He'd rather just dump a new migrant/refugee crisis onto Florida and have Florida pay for it.

That's why it's good to see Gaetz on the job and exposing the Biden administration's failure to prepare. That's not a good thing, but it allows Florida to be prepared for the next Biden foreign policy disaster about to slap the American people.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/03/is_joe_biden_ready_for_a_big_haitian_migrant_flotilla.html

Quest Alzheimer's Blood Test No Longer Marketed Directly to Patients

A Quest Diagnostics Alzheimer's blood test that people could purchase from home without visiting a doctor first

opens in a new tab or window is no longer being marketed directly to consumers.

The test, known as Quest AD-Detect, measures amyloid-beta 42 and amyloid-beta 40 in blood to provide an amyloid-beta 42/40 (AB 42/40) ratio.

Quest Diagnostics first announcedopens in a new tab or window AD-Detect as a consumer-initiated test on July 31, 2023, but the test is no longer offered on the company's consumer platformopens in a new tab or window.

"We paused offering our consumer-initiated AB 42/40 test at the end of 2023, in part to redouble our focus on our primary physician channel," a Quest Diagnostics representative told MedPage Today.

The decision followed multiple communications involving Quest, the Alzheimer's Association, and biomarker researchers.

AD-Detect has not been cleared or approvedopens in a new tab or window by the FDA. It is still being marketed to physicians, though no peer-reviewed research papers validating its accuracy have been published.

Preliminary data supporting AD-Detect were presented in an abstractopens in a new tab or window at the 2022 Alzheimer's Association International Conference, from a study of 209 people. In August 2023, after MedPage Today raised questions about the data, the abstract authors said the sensitivity and specificity estimates were inadvertently switchedopens in a new tab or window.

On Aug. 21, 2023, the abstract was amended to include a new sentence that stated that, at the amyloid-beta 42/40 cut-point of 0.160, "the assay has a sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 71% for detecting PET-positivity, which is suggestive of AD [Alzheimer's disease]."

Alzheimer's experts on the Alzforumopens in a new tab or window networking site maintained that the specificity numbers weren't good enough.

"With the type of patients that Quest seems to be targeting with their low specificity test, a positive test result may be false-positive more often than it is true-positive," Suzanne Schindler, MD, PhD, of Washington University in St. Louis, told MedPage Today. "This could cause unnecessary patient anxiety and further burden memory clinics that are already stretched thin."

AD-Detect is not a diagnostic test, Quest said. It is a laboratory-developed test (LDT) that uses liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. LDTs like Quest AD-Detect are regulated by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) program of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which does not address the clinical validityopens in a new tab or window of any tests.

The FDA recently proposed changesopens in a new tab or window to LDT oversight, expressing concern that patients who use them for Alzheimer's disease, cancer, heart disease, and other disorders could initiate unnecessary treatment or delay or forgo proper treatment based on inaccurate LDT results.

"These widely used tests are not generally coming to the FDA for review or otherwise complying with FDA requirements," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, said when the agency's proposal was announced last September.

"This leaves Americans vulnerable to making important healthcare choices based on potentially faulty or inaccurate test results," Califf pointed out. "This should not continue."

The Alzheimer's Association currently is updating its appropriate use recommendationsopens in a new tab or window for blood tests in Alzheimer's disease. The group calls for cautious use of validated blood-based biomarkers at specialized memory clinics as part of the diagnostic work-up of patients who have cognitive symptoms, with results confirmed with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis or PET scans.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/neurology/alzheimersdisease/109142

Search This Blog

Tuesday, March 12, 2024