One of the new trends in auto insurance is letting your auto insurance carrier ride shotgun with you. Money could be saved if you like the idea!

Most big car insurers now offer apps that monitor your driving and as a possible reward, your premiums are discounted.  But there is a big IF!  That ‘if’ is if you have safe driving habits.

I have spent the last 15 days with a monitored driving app.  One of my companies asked me and a few of their other agents to beta test their app as they upgrade the quality of their app.  It has been very interesting to say the least and there have been very few surprises to me about my driving.

The process is simple!  You download an app and it remains active on your phone.  Every time you get in a vehicle, the GPS of the phone along with the accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer (compass) records that activity on the app and transmits that to the company.  Even if you ride a bike and carry your phone with you, that trip is recorded.  However, this latest app I’m using detects that I am not in my car and reports “Not A Car” on the app.  If you are a passenger in a car, you can edit that also to show you weren’t driving.

The primary goal of these apps is to determine the following:

• Hard Braking
• Acceleration
• High Speed
• Time of Day
• Distraction by Cell phone usage

If none of those items are trouble spots for you, you could see up to a 30% discount in your auto premium with a 15% discount just for signing up for the app.

In my office, Progressive was the first with their SnapShot app in 1998.  It has been very successful for customers and the company.  Then, Travelers developed the IntelliDrive app which is available to our customers also.  Most every insurance company has a monitored driving app or is developing one

Proponents of this insurance play up the potential savings, the financial motivation to drive with care and the emissions reductions resulting from fewer miles driven.  Critics of these type programs call the apps “the spy in your car!”

Some of the programs will rescind the initial discount and may even raise rates if drivers can’t keep their foot off the throttle or rack up a lot of mileage, use their cellphone while driving, frequently brake hard or commit other recorded violations.  But for most drivers, this usage-based insurance is less expensive than a conventional policy, and for cautious drivers who do not often drive, it can be considerably less expensive.

The way the programs analyze data can lead to faulty conclusions. For example, the software considers hard braking a negative and counts it against the driver’s record, even when the stop is the result of an urgent situation, such as a ball in the street or a stoplight.

The insurers claim hard braking is a good predictor of collisions, as it is indicative of tailgating. They are looking for a pattern – not just one or two hard brake stops.

As for the privacy considerations. most of the programs report vehicle location, so your insurer will know what you’re up to. Those who don’t like being monitored might be uneasy knowing their insurance company is watching their every move behind the wheel.

Currently, these programs are optional, but it wouldn’t surprise me if insurance companies will be watching every driver on the road and basing their billing on those observations in the future.

How have I done on my 15-day test?  I have NO distracting driving negatives, I have 20% (out of 100%) hard braking, 10% acceleration, less than 5% high speed and I’m excelling in time of day – mainly because, I’m not out in late night or early morning driving my car. 

It has been interesting to see this information recorded on me.  I could save premium dollars with the way I drive and I don’t mind the insurance company knowing where I am.  It may not be too bad to have an “Elf on the Hood!”

We can tell you more about it here at the agency.  Feel free to TEXT or CALL us at 615.377.1212.  You can email us at info@BentonWhite.com.  We’ve got you covered, and we can show you how you can save some auto premium dollars if you want an Elf on YOUR Hood!

Stay safe and healthy!