Drive Safe & Save™ Software

The revamped version is 1000% better than the old one! I drive a handicap van with my wife strapped down in her scooter in the back. I always take corners very slowly to the irritation of those behind me but the best I could ever do was a C+ in the old app. It also indicated I had done some speed in excess of 80, which was absolutely not true. One thing is you have to be careful about you or anyone else handling your phone while driving. These apps use the gaming accelerometers and your phones GPS to determine cornering and speed so they can be significantly affected by extraneous movements, including speed bumps and bumpy roads. I also used to get short trip registrations just walking around in my garage without even starting the van. But that doesn’t happen in this new version! It also judges cornering so much better! I think it’s great!

I enjoy that you’re able to see the specifics as to how they rate your driving & how they show you on the map where certain things happened if you get “dinged” with speeding/hard braking/phone usage, etc. One problem I’ve noticed, living in an area where some spots can have a lot of deer, if I brake due to a deer running across the road (which you’d think would be the safe option), I end up getting a lower driving score for hard braking & it tells me to keep a safe distance from the car ahead of me.. except it was for a deer, not me following too closely. Also, not too thrilled that it marks you down for using navigation apps, as I use my phone for gps sometimes. Even to skip songs or have someone else use your phone for you, it marks you down. I know it says the phone usage doesn’t effect the discount, however, it lowers your overall driving score which does effect the discount. Another issue I’ve ran into now that I have to have my location services on all the time along with Bluetooth, I’ve noticed that my battery is dying so fast!! I used to get away with not even charging my phone at night sometimes because the battery would still be high enough from the previous nights charge & now I’m having to recharge my phone at least twice a day - it’s really kind of inconvenient. If I charge my phone while I drive (suggested by State Farm), then I can’t listen to music, as it uses the same plug in area on my phone.

I enjoy seeing the feedback on how I am driving. My husband and I compete for the highest score. However, there are a few things about the app that I don’t like. First, I wish that I did not have to be logged into all of the vehicles on my account. I drive a car other than my own very rarely. But my phone will hook to my husband’s car when I’m a passenger, and then I get his driving score. But what’s worse, if I pick up my phone while we’re driving down the road, I get counted off... and I’m not even driving! I really get aggravated by that. Secondly, I have been doing nothing wrong and have been counted off for braking because I chose to stop rather than run the red light, or because I came over a hill and a farmer was stopped in the road. Situations that are completely out of my control, and I get counted off. That also irritates me a bit. It is a bit ironic to me that I get penalized for not running a stoplight, but if I were to run through it, my score would not be affected. Seems to me, one of these things is worse than the other.