This removes "New Toyotas" from my list of potential next vehicles, though it's likely just a matter of time before all new vehicles have a direct link with insurance companies.
Pull out the entire wire harness and replace it with an aftermarket Power Distribution Module system, ECU, and CAN-BUS controller. Remove all this monitoring and connectivity crap, but keep the best parts of a modern Japanese car: the bulletproof mechanical components. It's expensive and time-consuming, but also saves some weight.
[0] https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/toyota-pay-12b-hiding-deadly-...
"Michael Barr of the Barr Group testified that NASA had not been able to complete its examination of Toyota's ETCS and that Toyota did not follow best practices for real time life critical software, and that a single bit flip which can be caused by cosmic rays could cause unintended acceleration. As well, the run-time stack of the real-time operating system was not large enough and that it was possible for the stack to grow large enough to overwrite data that could cause unintended acceleration."
So... maybe the computer could have physically failed, or a stack overflow, or some other error? Regardless, I still feel like drive-by-wire is scary. The Revisionist History podcast also covers the unintended acceleration recall from more of a psychological perspective[2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%9311_Toyota_vehicle...
The GM handling of ignition deaths was upsetting to read about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_swit...
Ford’s 2000s era people carriers with a penchant for self-immolation due to a wiring harness issue iirc.
More recently the Bosch / VAG diesel gate stories that were in the news.
Off setting that was the John Deere move to block aftermarket servicing because end users can’t be trusted...!
It turns out that a certain immigrant demographic has the property: many get a credit card, they immediately charge it to the max, they make the minimum payment forever. Another demographic: some of them get a credit card, immediately charge it to the max, they make 2 payments, then they never make another payment again.
The way to do this right is to just spread the risk over everyone so that good people in the second demographic are not penalized by bad ones.
The way it really works is: advertising heavily targets the first demographic, using their national language and excluding other demographics.
So in regard to insurance, good drivers will think "this doesn't apply to me", and bad drivers will be excluded by making them go elsewhere.
Find a group of markers that are collective a very strong proxy for demographic 2, such as zip code, education, credit score, and they charge them higher rates or restrict enrollment.