How does it work?
Is the app always running in the background and if so, does it impact your battery life?

I use the USAA DriveSafe app. Don’t notice much of a battery issue, and do see a discount on my billing. We do not drive out of state any more. Our trips are mostly routine: Dr, Groceries,
Pharmacy, out to dinner, etc. For our use, it’s checked once in a while- more interesting(?) then obtrusive IMHO.
Regards to all.
Blackhorse4

The app tracks the trip by route, milage, self identified driver, and a couple other metrics. USAA does track it.

I haven't noticed any extra drain on my phone battery. I do like the discount and in some cases I've used the app to remember where I went to on a certain day . It definitely changes your driving habits and in my case pretty much eliminated talking on the phone while driving. Obviously that's a good thing but I realize that's not possible in everyone's case and you will get dinged for talking on your phone.

Would it 'ding' you for talking hands-free in your car using your car's app linked to your phone?

I have no desire for USAA to track my driving

I’ve been thinking about the program since I was notified about it, and I do wonder at times how something I’m doing would be evaluated.

Would the monitoring be sophisticated enough, for example, to know if someone had not stopped for a stop sign? (I’ve actually been criticized for my habit of actually stopping, which seems to be pretty rare these days.)

What if you don’t have your phone turned on while you’re driving?

quote:

I do wonder at times how something I’m doing would be evaluated.

My fear, too. How does it evaluate your driving when you have to slam on your brakes for a child running into the street after a ball? Punching the gas pedal to get out of the way of a drunk driver? Are you 'dinged' for hard stops and jackrabbit starts? The program has no context to what's happening as you drive.

We tried it for awhile. It did reduce our premiums. The version we had kepts locking up our phones, even after new phones, so we discontinued using it. A couple of issues. Any kind of quick maneuver or hard breaking was flagged, possibly as agressive driving. Also the app can't tell if the person using the phone is the driver or a passenger. We both have phones and often are in the car together. We would get dinged for my phone use when my wife was driving.

quote:

Originally posted by Anush:
I have no desire for USAA to track my driving

Me either......I don't want USAA or anyone else tracking my driving no matter any perceived savings.

AllState has the same thing. Location/route Tracking, Speed Monitoring, time of day Monitoring. Ding at 80mph. Speed limits here are 75, so 80 is frequently possible. School zone 25, but no Ding until you go 80!

First I dropped USAA , then I dropped AllState.

Started the USAA program last year and here are some points: You cannot touch your phone during a trip, handsfree answering will get you a ding, tracking requires you to always allow on settings, no additional battery drain and we save 22-25% per 6 month billing. Suggest you give it a try for one or two billing cycles. Note if your engine is running you are being tracked and assessed for use.

I’m not into Big Brother monitoring my driving so I can get some crumbs from them, screw that.

They claim it’s for “safe” driving? Ha. Just wait till you have an accident and then they tell you that you were 1 mile over the speed limit and they’re denying your claim.

^^^ It's an insurance company so I'd expect them to look for a reason to deny your claim with any data they possess.

Side note: Why doesn't USAA have discounts for dashcams? If safety is a goal, why not provide them?

quote:

Originally posted by bryan11:
^^^ It's an insurance company so I'd expect them to look for a reason to deny your claim with any data they possess.

Which is why you don't invite them into your car with an app every time you drive your car. USAA is not doing this for the benefit of their customers they're doing it for the benefit of USAA pocketing more money than they pay out.

I guess I'm wired different. I've been using it since its inception. I do pay more attention to the road and all my calls go to voicemail. It dings for texts too so I've got my return message set to "I'm driving".

It still allows carplay so navigation isn't a problem, nor is streamed music or podcasts/books.

I honestly don't mind it a bit.

Just consider, all that data is sold by Allstate, USAA et al into a shared pool of driver data, just like accident history.

I have read where rolled stop signs are noted, speed over the limit, hard braking, and it all will create a driving score for you and they will base your insurance rates off of the information.

It will make shopping rates impossible, they all will see your history and rate you accordingly, no more "I drive for pleasure and only 4500 miles a year" enrollments when you drive 15K a year and back and forth to work. So you don't have to drive badly, just differently than you told the agent.

Not a chance anyone is tracking my driving, I don't care how much money it saves me.

I did it with a different insurance carrier at the advice of my broker. It was either 60 or 90 days 3-4 years ago. What I discovered was running the app and trying to drive to its metrics was not only unsafe, it was extremely dangerous. Where I live we have service roads that are 50mph, 55mph. If you have to make a right on the service road, traffic is going to dictate that you need to hit it, and get up to the speed limit briskly. Accelerating slowly is just going to get you into a wreck.

Then you have all the people on the phone doing stupid shit. This can cause you to have to brake aggressively. Several times while using that app I had idiots that were in the fast lane on the highway, and they attempted to merge, at the last minute, 4-5 lanes, to hit an exit. I guess they weren’t paying attention. You either panic brake or run into the back of them.

The app assumes utopia. It doesn’t factor in how poorly people drive today. The excessive speeding on the highway. People driving way under the speed limit on the highway. All the distracted driving from the phones, eating, etc. It’s just yet another ploy to monitor your entire life. If you aren’t getting tickets then leave us alone. If you aren’t getting into wrecks, then leave us alone. You will need to be able “punch it” when necessary and lock up the brakes, activating ABS, if necessary, to avoid a wreck. The app wants you to drive like an 80 year old grandma and driving like that can get you into a wreck and into the ER.