Should the government keep an eye on your driving habits? It’s starting in Europe, and it might be headed our way soon.
Here are the cities and states with the worst drivers
You can keep your car on the road for years or even decades with routine maintenance. Tap or click here for five monthly checks to do on your vehicle.
A well-maintained car is safe, but what about your driving habits? Do you ever feel that you’re the only good driver out there? It’s a common enough belief.
People have theories about what parts of the country have the worst drivers, but there’s not much data behind that. Until now. Want to know which cities are home to automotive incompetence? How about the car brands most associated with poor driving skills? Read on to see if your car or region made the list!
The data
Thanks to social media, people’s complaints about bad drivers are there for all to see. The Clunker Junker used artificial intelligence to analyze over 250,000 driving-related tweets.
The study involved finding tweets containing the word “drivers” followed by each state’s name, the top 100 cities in the U.S. by population and the leading car manufacturers. Each tweet was analyzed with an AI algorithm to rank states, cities and car brands based on the percentage of negative driving-related messages for each category.
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The states with the worst drivers
The condition of the road affects how we drive, and according to data from the Federal Highway Administration, Rhode Island has the worst roads.
Traffic congestion also contributes to a driver’s perception of another driver’s skills behind the wheel. Fast-growing populations mean more traffic and a darker view of other drivers. Five of the 10 states with the highest percentage of negative driver tweets are among the fastest-growing states.
Here are the top 10 states with the worst drivers according to negative driving-related tweets:
- Rhode Island
- Mississippi
- Virginia
- Arizona
- Texas
- Utah
- Florida
- South Carolina
- New Mexico
- Kansas
Beware of cheap car insurance that could put your privacy at risk
Car technology has been getting more and more advanced lately. You can do things like make phone calls through your car’s audio system, play music from your phone and get directions to appear right on your dashboard.
Check your car: A guy who bought a Toyota Corolla discovered a hidden GPS he thinks the dealer installed. When the car’s battery died, he checked the OBDII port and there was a tracker. Uh, why? Theories range from making it easier to steal to selling info on driving habits to insurance companies. Here’s how he found the tracker.
Your car is watching
Automakers and insurance companies are teaming up to share data on your driving habits. Also, EV sales are struggling, and there are issues with Airbnb. I speak with a guy whose identity was stolen, and now the scammer is using his info to con others.
Car-tracking shocker: Automakers are sharing our driving habits with insurance companies. With help from data brokers (NY Times, paywall link) like LexisNexis, insurers know every move we make — speeding, hard braking, rapid acceleration, you name it. The kicker? This could spike your insurance bill. I suppose we should’ve known this was happening.