Older drivers to get insurance breaks by playing games

Posted Oct 5th 2008 11:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture

The stereotype of older drivers being more dangerous on the road has apparently gotten the Allstate insurance company to try something unusual to make sure it's fine to insure these older drivers. According to a new Associated Press story (via CNN), the company has started a trial program involving these older drivers playing games.

No, they won't be playing a version of Burnout Paradise. Rather these games have been custom made by a company called Posit Science and designed to improve visual alertness. 100,000 drivers age 50 to 75 will be given a chance by Allstate to play these games in Pennsylvania. Their scores will be compared to a control group of folks who don't play the game. If this trial is successful Allstate will expand this program to other parts of the US.

Tags: burnout-paradise, posit-science

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

This story is pretty blown out of proportion around the web with rather hyperbolic headlines. It's not really a video game and it is only a relatively small sample of elderly from one insurance company. The actual number of older people who have a computer and are connected enough to know and participate in this is probably fractionally small. The headlines thrown around make it sound like any older person who can prove that they have played Burnout will get breaks.

...bysmittyPosted at 10:05AM on Oct 6th 2008 by bysmitty