Night versus day driving risk

[Harry Bloomfield]

The gadgets which log your driving, for insurance purposes, to decide how good/bad a driver you are - apparently they mark you down if you do much night time driving, because there is an increased risk of accidents at night. That is very much at odds with my own experience...

I've always found night driving, to be a much more relaxed experience than during the day - much less traffic on the road, almost no delays, and what there is, is much less frantic generally. If I have any long distance drives to do, I have always try to do them during the night hours.

No I don't have such a gadget - having one fitted would make no difference at all to the cost of my insurance, because my driving record is impeccable.

 

[Koolpc]

because my driving record is impeccable.

Famous last words! Lol

 

[foxhole]

More drunk / drug drivers around at night to avoid.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I think it's just down to statistics that actually most accidents occur in evening rush hour in winter (so dark) when it's wet and people are tired and more likely to drive poorly.

 

[Avocet]

It doesn't really matter what anyone's personal feelings and experience might be. As Freddiemercury'stwin says, it's just done statistically. Accidents at night will cost them more money, overall, so the premiums will be higher for people who do a lot of it.

 

[RandomGrinch]

I thought all new cars had to have telematics installed anyway?

All new cars sold in UK must be fitted with a Black Box | Coventry & Warwickshire

Did you know that from July 7, any new car manufactured for sale in the European Union, must be fitted with speed limiters and a Black Box monitoring system? The new regulations have been introduced in a bid to tackle the increasing number of people killed, or seriously injured, on…

www.alsterskelley.com

Even in my 2017 car, there is a secret menu on the touch screen, that brings up GPS coordinates, even though I don't have satnav.
Big brother is definitely watching!

 

[Avocet]

I thought all new cars had to have telematics installed anyway?

All new cars sold in UK must be fitted with a Black Box | Coventry & Warwickshire

Did you know that from July 7, any new car manufactured for sale in the European Union, must be fitted with speed limiters and a Black Box monitoring system? The new regulations have been introduced in a bid to tackle the increasing number of people killed, or seriously injured, on…

www.alsterskelley.com

Even in my 2017 car, there is a secret menu on the touch screen, that brings up GPS coordinates, even though I don't have satnav.
Big brother is definitely watching!

The article is slightly wrong, but yes, it's coming. Anything newly-type approved in the EU since last July, needed to have it, and ALL new cars first registered in the EU will need one by July next year. GB is still undecided as to whether it will mandate this requirement, but as you say, manufacturers have been fitting them for years for "ass-covering" purposes anyway! In any case, the mainstream manufacturers won't be bothered taking them off cars destined for GB.

Annex 4 is the list of things they spy on, if you're interested...

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://unece.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/R160E.pdf

Strictly speaking, not telematics, insofar as the car doesn't transmit them (at least, the regulation doesn't require it - some manufacturers might choose to). It has to store them in a "black box" like a plane's black box, for the accident investigators to interrogate.

 

[RandomGrinch]

The article is slightly wrong, but yes, it's coming. Anything newly-type approved in the EU since last July, needed to have it, and ALL new cars first registered in the EU will need one by July next year.

Thank you, that explains everything.
I had heard about the requirements, but couldn't find much UK specific information, apart from the tabloid scare stories!

 

[mointainwalker]

Thank you, that explains everything.
I had heard about the requirements, but couldn't find much UK specific information, apart from the tabloid scare stories!

This telematics box will be for national safety statistics and has nothing to do with - and will not be linked to - insurance comapnies.

 

[Avocet]

This telematics box will be for national safety statistics and has nothing to do with - and will not be linked to - insurance comapnies.

Not just statistics. The results will be accessible to police investigators during accident investigations.

 

[norseman]

I used to prefer night driving as opposed to daytime & did a lot of it when I was a truck driver, but with age the preference reverses as eyesight declines. My eyes (tested every year) are still ahead of DVLA requirements, but today's oncoming headlights are a real distraction & I need to use night driving glasses. I find that the high-beam facility on headlights, once useful on rural roads, is largely unusable these days due to the volume of oncoming traffic.

As for Telematics, I'm never likely to buy a car modern enough to have it

 

[Avocet]

I used to prefer night driving as opposed to daytime & did a lot of it when I was a truck driver, but with age the preference reverses as eyesight declines. My eyes (tested every year) are still ahead of DVLA requirements, but today's oncoming headlights are a real distraction & I need to use night driving glasses. I find that the high-beam facility on headlights, once useful on rural roads, is largely unusable these days due to the volume of oncoming traffic.

As for Telematics, I'm never likely to buy a car modern enough to have it

Manufacturers have been doing this for longer than you might think! About 10 years ago, I was involved in a fatal accident investigation on a car that was, itself, a couple of years old, even then. Long story short, the driver maintained that the car "just braked by itself" as he was approaching a T junction. (An artic went into the back of him and killed his wife). In the ensuing accident investigation, the car manufacturer downloaded the data from the "black box" that was built into every one of those cars. It recorded a rolling 30 seconds of data from just about every sensor the car had - speed, engine speed, throttle position, brake line pressures, lights, airbags, ABS, (you name it)! Sadly, for the driver, the car appeared to have behaved normally. The data showed that he seemed to have just got his feet mixed up and pressed the brake instead of the clutch pedal.

Anyway, the point is that for a good decade now (and almost certainly closer to 20 years, many (if not all) car manufacturers have had this capability. Obviously, it's not "telemetry" as such, in that the car (or most cars of its age) didn't have the ability to transmit the data anywhere. But it was certainly a "data logger". And obviously, the vast majority of cars, just go to the scrapyard with nobody ever interrogating that data. Even the police don't routinely demand it. The manufacturers just used it for "ass-covering" when someone (as in the sad case above) makes a claim that the car did (or didn't) do something.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I used to prefer night driving as opposed to daytime & did a lot of it when I was a truck driver, but with age the preference reverses as eyesight declines.

I was prescribed a pair of distance glasses 25 years ago, as being marginally needed for driving, and I am still the same prescription, so I still wear the very same glasses now. My reading glasses, are likewise the very same prescription, as my first prescription of 25 years ago.

Both confirmed by an eye test last week, at Specsaver. For reading glasses, I just buy the £1 shop versions, which fall apart after a few months of use, because I'm careless with glasses - then I just replace them. I wore the glasses to the test, and to my surprise the optician said they were just fine - they didn't attempt to sell me a prescription pair.

My eyes (tested every year) are still ahead of DVLA requirements, but today's oncoming headlights are a real distraction & I need to use night driving glasses.

I can meet the DVLA requirements with, and usually without my prescription driving glasses, but better/easier wearing the glasses.

 

[norseman]

I can meet the DVLA requirements with, and usually without my prescription driving glasses, but better/easier wearing the glasses.

Mine have very slight magnification lenses with an anti-glare coating that really works.
I only wear them for night driving, not needed for daytime though I guess they would be suitable should my sight get worse before the good 'ole NHS decides to treat my cataracts .. always assuming I'm still breathing by then

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I only wear them for night driving, not needed for daytime though I guess they would be suitable should my sight get worse before the good 'ole NHS decides to treat my cataracts .. always assuming I'm still breathing by then

Avril was advised by an optician, to wear sunglasses, when out in the sun, to help avoid cataracts. I don't know if that's true, but she wears these self darkening specs.

Me, I've never felt the need for sunglasses, and I don't have any cataracts.