Gamers get car insurance discount

By Mike Bantick
Monday, 06 October 2008 03:44

Entertainment

Allstate Corp – an insurance company in the US – is trialling a program that could see insurance premium discounts given to folks over 50 who gain high scores in video games.

With the average age of video gamers on the rise, it seems only natural that there be a flow on effect in other industries.

From Pennsylvania comes the news of a pilot program called InSight.  Run by Allstate Corp, the program is designed to determine the positive effects video games could have on the safety record of drivers aged 50 to 75.

Accident rates for the group will be compared to a control group of non game players.

Unfortunately the test group are not playing Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Grand Theft Auto or any of the Burnout series.  Instead the games are a specific selection chosen for their cognitive stimulation.

As an example; “Jewel Diver” has players track underwater gems hidden by fish, in a digital version of the pea in the cup game.

All games are part of the PositScience InSight suite of Visual Training exercises designed to exercise aspects such as field of view and sharpening visual precision.   

The test group will complete at least ten hours of training on InSight.  100,000 Pennsylvanian drivers will take part in the pilot program with Allstate considering a roll out to other states next year.

According to the CNN report , people aged in their 50’s and 60’s have the lowest accident rate of all drivers, but after the age of 60 the rate ramps up again.  Allstate are hoping that the brain fitness video games can turn this trend, and also improve the high scores of Pennsylvanian Seniors.