If you have not heard of MetroMile, you can be forgiven. Its a new age insurance company with all the glamour of being a silicon valley startup that has started a pay per mile insurance company. You basically pay more if you drive more. Makes sense, doesnt it ?
Before I move onto the gadget itself, a word of caution there. We cannot endorse the insurance company. For some reason, I could not find any review of MetroMile’s insurance products or their claims process. I even scoured their Facebook page, but unlike traditional insurance companies wherein customers are either complaining or praising staff, there was again no mention of peoples’ experiences with this company.
Now onto the device itself. MetroMile has developed a device which would be used to track vehicle usage. They call it the Metronome. The device fits into the OBD II port of any modern car and is ready for business. Among the things it tracks are the speed of the vehicle at all times, its GPS location and if there are any problems with the engine or not. The device also displays tripwise and average gas consumption. Any other analytics being extracted by MetroMile are not shown to end users.
The device is mandatory to be placed by all their insurance customers. But worry not, even if you are not a customer you can signup to test out their device. They will send a free unit to you and you can have access to a large variety of reports. I received my device within a week of ordering, it took me 10 minutes to install it into my 2014 Toyota Corolla. After collecting data for a few days, here is what we think of the device.