The insurance industry markets automation as a force for efficiency. But when said automation introduces an error, that error can propagate silently across systems, damaging consumers without warning, accountability, or remedy. This is my experience.
In 2020, after a catalytic converter theft here in San Francisco, my insurer (Metromile, now part of Lemonade) incorrectly flagged my car internally as a total loss—despite paying for repairs and leaving my DMV title clean, without ever informing me.
Last night’s meeting of the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee (DCCC) was a procedural train wreck—a proverbial circus that would be amusing if it didn’t undermine trust in how San Francisco’s Democratic Party operates.
Rules of order were nowhere to be found.
I was there to support a resolution I helped develop: The Resolution Calling for Accountability and Budget Responsibility in Corporate Tax Disputes. It’s a straightforward proposal. In a city facing an $817.5 million budget shortfall, the least we can do is call out corporations like Airbnb and Uber for suing the City to avoid paying taxes that fund basic services like mental health care, homelessness programs, and public hospitals. Simple enough.
I don’t upgrade phones for better cameras, brighter screens, or to get access to the newest cell networks. I like using my phones until they physically stop working. And my Pixel 4a, bought in December 2020, was functioning fine until Google broke it.
The first week of this year, I got an email about the Pixel 4a Battery Performance Program. Buried in the corporate speak was the real message: Google was going to push a software update to “improve stability,” which in practice meant degrading battery performance. It wasn’t optional. And the “appeasement” they offered: a token fifty bucks, or a hundred dollars in credit at their store. Maybe a battery replacement, if you were lucky enough to find a shop that could do it.
