Are Driving Safety Apps Making Motorists Safer?

Technology and software are positioned to potentially play a prominent role in the way your driving experience will be in the future. While technology may affect the way vehicles handle, it may even be changing motorists’ driving experience – helping them make safer choices behind the wheel.

And while there are various driving safety apps currently on the market, at least one interested party is already trying to encourage motorists to voluntarily use these apps and share the info gathered by them – and that’s insurance companies.

Insurance Companies Track Motorists’ Behaviors via Driving Apps

Has your insurance company talked to you about lower premium payments in exchange for participating in a “safe driver program”? If not, it may be a matter of time before this happens, as more and more insurance companies seem to be moving forwards this paradigm in order to:

• Track motorists’ behaviors
• Determine how safe or risky individual drivers are
• Set insurance premiums (and potentially make other policy-related decisions).

Progressive Insurance, one of America’s top auto insurance providers, began piloting its Snapshot driver safety program utilizing the Censio app in September 2015, with the promise of rewarding policyholders for good driving behaviors.

Censio, like many new driver safety apps, captures individual driver behaviors that can be analyzed to detect the motorist’s potentially risky maneuvers or habits (i.e., areas that need improvement).

How Safe of a Driver Are You? Think again!

Ask nearly anyone, and they’ll probably tell you that they believe they are safe drivers. Then ask them how many traffic tickets they’ve had in the last few years. If they’ve had one in the past three years, then chances are they have some risky driving behaviors – or are prone to making poor decisions behind the wheel.

The fact is 21% of U.S. drivers get speeding tickets every year. For many people, driving is actually among the most dangerous activities they engage in on a daily basis.

“The human brain is not good at statistics and probability, so most people aren’t thinking how sending this text will affect their probability of getting into an accident,” said MIT alumnus Brad Cordova in a recent article on phys.org.

Drive Safety Apps on the Market Targeting Mostly Teens

According to a new report from Insurancequotes.com, car insurance costs go up an average of 79 percent when a husband and wife add a teen driver to the family policy. That’s mainly due to the risks associated with teen motorists – and why many insurance companies are encouraging motorists to enroll teens (and others) in safe driving programs.

• Liberty Mutual’s safe driving app, Octo Telematics, aims to sharpen driver’s skills and rewards their good driving behaviors with lower insurance premiums.

• State Farm features an application called Steer Clear, which is aimed at drivers ages 16-24 and is available for iPhone or android. The latest figures available from State Farm shows nearly 62,000 users have downloaded the app.

• Allstate’s Drivewise app collects data on speed, braking, miles driven, and time of driving activity. Drivewise users can save as much as 30% on their insurance premiums by using the app.

While such apps can come with cost savings – and maybe even the promising if instilling safer driving habits in you (and/or other motorists in your family), it should be noted that:

• Individual privacy and information use policies may vary, so go over these carefully before agree to participate (or download) anything).
• Insurance companies, who may be on your side when selling you policies and encouraging participating in safe driving programs, will NOT necessarily be looking out for your rights after an accident when it’s time to file a claim. To ensure your rights and interests are protected after a car crash, it’s important to retain an experienced lawyer – like a St Louis car accident lawyer at Brown & Brown.

Contact a St Louis Car Accident Lawyer at Brown & Brown Attorneys at Law

If you have been hurt in a car accident, contact a St Louis car accident injury lawyer at Brown & Brown Attorneys at Law to find out more about your best recovery options. We have a long-standing commitment to serving our clients, and we are dedicated to providing them with aggressive legal advocacy and the highest-quality representation while working tirelessly to favorably resolve their case.

To learn more about how we can help you, attend a free, no obligations initial consult with a St Louis car accident lawyer at Brown & Brown. You can schedule this meeting by calling us at 573-333-3333 for our Missouri office or at 618-888-8888 for our Illinois office. You can also email us using the form at the right-hand side of the screen.