Driving behavior analysis, or telematics, as the insurance industry calls it, could be better for consumers, leading to personalized rates that are more fair. Plus, if people have to pay more for their risky driving, they may drive more cautiously, leading to safer roads. But this will happen only if drivers are aware that their behavior is being monitored.

I’m so sick of this shit.

Just like the stop sign cameras, this only increases safety by penalizing and then monetizing minor mistakes that humans make. This is not about safety, it’s about maximizing income through technological micromanaging of drivers who have not caused an accident and were not in danger of causing one.

You’d also have to be a damn fool not to realize that all the data they’re collecting may not apply to their rate structure today, but in the future that rate structure will change, and suddenly a history of driver data you let them gather about you goes from being unremarkable to indicative of a problem.

The shareholders are demanding a blood sacrifice, so rates suddenly go up for people that have a driver score beneath a certain threshold where previously that threshold was higher.

Or some new bullshit study comes out claiming people that listen to podcasts while driving are infinitesimally more likely to cause an accident than people that listen to music, and whoops, Michael Barbaro has been your constant companion on every morning commute for the last 4 years. That’s a pattern of risky behavior.

I know it’s not the point, but I love the completely arbitrary bit where they’re walking down a road together, and has absolutely no bearing on anything the happens.

lol, funny thing is that this isn’t really a story about ice cream machines - anyone who’s seen melted mcds ice cream foam knows that ain’t ice cream.

It’s funny people think this is some sort of secret. It’s right in the name of the product: soft-serve.

That’s what soft-serve is. Basically a bastardized form of ice-cream mixed with air to make it soft and add volume. The mix is often extended with stuff like CMC, but that’s hardly unique to McDonald’s.

The formulation of the mix at McDonald’s is probably just “extended” more than you might find at other places, but the fact it’s “foam” is hardly the scandal.