USAA SafePilot Reviews

by Simply_i_roc

Oh now this isn’t showing what I’m typing. Your system is beyond flawed. I pulled over to answer my daughter’s call and ended the call before pulling off. I recie phone handling even when I pull over and answer or make the call. I insure that I hang up before pulling off. I called in the beginning of this policy to speak to some o Corning this exact matter and was transferred from one person to another. In addition, I make sure that my phone is secure and I receive phone handling often which is so frustrating because I make every effort to wait till I can pull over and then answer usually the person hangs up before I can get to an area I can answer. I call back end the call pull off and then get dinged with phone handling. 37% is rediculous. I was on the phone for approximately 10 minutes. Hung up and pulled off. Literally my mother was my witness and I called my daughter back and again ended the call. Flawed. I requested information on removing USAASafePilot and how much more would my insurance be because I don’t feel that it is necessary to get dinged for something I didn’t do which will lead to me always not receiving the total discount. Then why bother. I understand you want to offer it but it’s not accurate.

by Swimpaddle

The concept of USAASafePilot is great, but the execution needs help! No account is taken of speed (although it says it is). It misses entire trips, dings you for harsh braking even if crawling along in traffic and someone pulls in front of you. USAASafePilot makes you wonder if you had let the other car hit you would it be ok since you didn’t slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.
I was sitting at a dead stop at a light and turned off maps since I knew how from that point how to get home. I got marked for phone handling. I never touched my phone. I turned it off from the dashboard screen. I called to dispute and was told I indeed was handling my phone since I touched the vehicle’s dashboard. Ok. So why don’t I get dinged for changing the temp in the cab, or changing the radio station?
It totally misses voice texts. I couldn’t answer my phone if it rang, but I could carry on lengthy text fests and never get flagged.
The last straw was rolling up to a red light and barely braking because the road was empty and I could see the light far in the distance. I got dinged. All told, I had 4 infractions (two of which were in the learning period) over two months and my score was in the low seventies.
This is so not worth the stress or the discount.

by Jacksw71

I’ve been a USAA policy holder for over 30 years, and USAASafePilot might be the final straw that causes me to look elsewhere. Others have noted USAASafePilot ’s shortcoming before, i.e., recording harsh braking and hands free phone usage as infractions, while somehow allowing fast acceleration, speeding, and erratic driving as AOK. The AARP app appears to be by the same developer but considers these aspects into the driving score. I don’t know if USAA is using an older beta version or what.

I have now been using the USAA-branded version for about two weeks, and it still tells me I haven’t driven enough to project my discount. I had a score of 100 until yesterday, when someone ran a red light in front of me and I needed to brake suddenly. No biggie…no one behind me and no risk of an accident. However, my score dropped to 90. Then today, I drive to lunch with NO infractions at all and my score dropped to 70?!? WTH USAA…are you somehow guessing that my burrito will give me a heart attack and I’ll wreck on the way home? That wasn’t part of the deal.

At the end of the day, I’m not sure USAASafePilot’s frustrations will be worth whatever discount they offer. I’m tired of being run over by speeding SUVs with drivers chatting away on their phones and being told I’M the bad driver.

by Cpatain Nemo

Update below

Despite the ads for USAA on TV, USAASafePilot does not track your speed or how much you use your signal lights. Ridiculously, it treats hands-free telephone use *as a distraction, not as a safety feature!* Futhrrmore, harsh braking does not take braking for someone cutting in front of you or a child or animal running into the street. Finally, at the end of my 30 days, it takes led me to see my discount. This is what I saw, after driving several hundred miles: “We don’t have enough data to calculate your projected discount…”. After 38 years with USAA, I’m considering the Navy Federal Credit Union.

Update: After getting all these stupid comments about “Good job!” for no mistakes after almost every drive but seeing my score and discount *get lower* I deleted USAASafePilot this afternoon. There must be hidden criteria they use to avoid having give you a discount. USAASafePilot seems to start one’s driving score high then lowers it little by little. It’s as if they’re trying to find ways to gig us drivers. USAA must have had a sea change for the worse in management. I found out the Navy Federal Credit Union uses Geico. I’m looking around and I recommend everyone insured by USAA do the same.

by Redangelusmc

Update: April 2024, still no ability to enable “motion & fitness” for USAASafePilot , which is required for it to work and deductions for safe driving to be made. How are we getting penalized for poor app development and the developers not keeping up with iOS updates? Poor management of USAASafePilot . If USAA doesn’t want to utilize USAASafePilot , they should just have it removed.

Update: 06 Aug 2023 There STILL isn’t an option to enable “motion & fitness” for USAASafePilot, which prohibits the actual use of USAASafePilot . So I’ll be losing my “safe driver” discount because USAASafePilot wasn’t developed properly. Awesome. If there isn’t the functionality to utilize USAASafePilot , either remove that functionality requirement (motion & fitness), or don’t punish the users for lack of proper app development.

17 April 2023: Update, it’s not been almost 5month without being able to use USAASafePilot due to the developers not making sure the features they need to function are even an option in the settings. Poor rollout without resolution. USAASafePilot worked great, until it required access to “motion & fitness” data, which isn’t an option in the settings anywhere for the Safe Pilot app. Jan 2023: So I’ve been stuck for 2mo without being able to view/review my data, because it won’t let me past the “settings update” screen.

by Annoyed In Va

I have had USAASafePilot and enrolled in the program for several weeks now and I am about to delete it and disenroll myself! Getting dinged for “hands free”, which is the safer alternative to handling your phone, is total garbage! My biggest complaint is the “hair trigger sensitivity” for what the determine to be “harsh braking”!! Case in point, this morning, I left my house and approached a stoplight with no cars in front of me as I gradually came to a stop. I turned, then drove a short distance to get on the interstate to head to work, driving carefully the whole time. After getting to work and parking, I glanced at USAASafePilot and was annoyed to find I had been dinged for “harsh braking” when I stopped at the light I mentioned!!! What the heck?? If I had slammed on my brakes, sure, ding me, but not a gradual stop! This happens too much due to being overly sensitive!! The example pic in USAASafePilot Store shows someone with 12 phone handling, 26 hand held calls, 13 hands free, and 21 harsh braking, with a score of 92??? I have 8 phone handling, 0 hand held calls, 7 hands free, and 37 harsh braking, and my score is a pathetic 66??? My discount has hovered around 2 or 3%!! USAASafePilot should only track “phone handling” and “hand held calls”. App needs serious overhaul!! Not worth all this trouble!!

by Dongo-5

This is a very frustrating app. I drive very safely in my Tesla, so safely that I recently scored 99 on teslas insurance rating system (I had to “qualify” to be allowed access to FSD beta). On USAASafePilot, I’ve gotten a couple of hard braking hits, all at the same stop light that seems to have a 30mph yellow delay on a 45 mph highway. The yellow is ALWAYS too short to make it through at 45, and too quick to slowly stop. In fact, the local cops sit and wait for cars to run the light on the quick yellow. The choice is to stop quickly or run the light. USAASafePilot seems to prefer that I run the red. Apparently that’s safer. When I’ve driven extended periods with no hits at all, my score drops. 100 to 87 to 82 to 64 in one week driving around town. No hits. My wife’s score stayed at 100 while I drove her around. As soon as she started driving around town with no hits, her score began to drop. So it appears the best way to keep your score up is to not drive at all. Safer that way. USAA should allow user feedback and allow users to explain hits, like the quick yellow lights. It should also offer a fuller explanation why the score drops simply from driving with no hits. Frankly, I’m very disappointed with USAASafePilot. It feels as if USAA is simply teasing us with a fictitious discount to allow them to track us and mine our data.

by FUBAR USAA App

USAASafePilot tracks my wife flying 600 mph on commercial flights as driving. Airplane runways as drives. That is just the blatantly bad part. Rarely gets who is driving the car correct and counts multiple family members as driving at the same time. It tracks the person watching a video in the back seat as driver with phone handling while the phone that is never picked up as passenger. It says you phone handle when you never touch your phone or take it out of your purse while driving. It becomes another thing businesses are tasking their customers with being their free employees to reduce their costs instead of doing the job for the customer. If it were not for the potential of a 30 percent discount there is no reason to subject yourself to this waist of time. The metro area we live in has short duration yellow lights that are well documented to limit red light running. Harsh braking faults are the worst with USAASafePilot. What is a typical stop in our region is considered a harsh brake. The result is now we are forced to run red lights or get a harsh brake default against our insurance discount. USAASafePilot encourages red light running and makes me feel more likely to get in a collision based on how it is changing our driving behavior. Never been in an accident that I was at fault in over 30 years of driving. USAASafePilot makes me think I will be at fault based on it encouraging red light running. TOTAL GARBAGE!

by Kurt_ave

I typically don’t take the time to write reviews but for USAASafePilot I felt inclined to do so so maybe the creators of it could make some changes. First off, I find it absurd that you get a trip infraction for using hands-free calling. You can’t answer a single call via bluetooth even if it’s an emergency without receiving a trip infraction. The entire point of hands-free calling is so that you’re not messing with your phone while driving. They fact they count this as an infraction is completely ridiculous. Second, USAASafePilot can not tell if you’re driving or sitting passenger in a vehicle. You can overwrite an infraction by telling USAASafePilot you’re the passenger but you have to remember to do so and it still seems to count harsh braking towards your overall score even if you’re not the one driving. Harsh braking is another infraction that should be removed because you shouldn’t be penalized for braking hard to prevent hitting someone in front of you. You can’t control how other people drive so taking precautions to drive safely shouldn’t count negatively toward your overall score. The only good thing about USAASafePilot is that it does give you a discount from your insurance and I’m less likely to pick up my phone while driving.

by Unomillionrob

I got rid of USAA’s version of Big Brother. You DON’T get to track my every move anymore cretins. VERY dissatisfied with this worthless app. I’m a 30 plus year member and based on this poor experience decided to move multiple polices - including homeowners and umbrella liability — to Amica. USAASafePilot drained my phone rapidly even while not driving so that I ran out of power multiple times. Gave me infractions for searching an address while I was in the automatic car wash. Who was I gonna hit while being pulled by a chain?? Gave me infractions for listening to a audiobook app. You can’t ever use the hands free calling option to answer a call. Big Brother is ALWAYS watching you. Think they aren’t monitoring where you are at ALL times? Think they won’t use the tons of data collected on you to under write your homeowners and life policies too? You’re a fool if you think they won’t. I don’t want them giving me “infractions” for everything I do. Totally disgusted with what this company has done. Used to be military officers ONLY. Now they allow any E1 that bolo’s out of basic to join. I’ve fired USAA and now belong to Amica. Your Big Brother Bravo Sierra app is costing you big time.

by Handdoctor

Well I think that it’s great to get 10% off your premium for getting USAASafePilot , USAASafePilot requires a lot of fine-tuning. It’s true that USAASafePilot will ding you for using hands-free phone use (something your car was designed to do) and also harsh breaking (whether you’re trying to stop from rear ending, hitting a dog or another wayward human being), the problem is that USAASafePilot doesn’t clarify the fact that it will ding you if you’re using your phone camera or speech capabilities while your car is parked and the motor running. If you’re skiing and stop suddenly, you’re dinged. USAASafePilot knows where you are at all times (Big Brother?) and can and will be used to provide metrics to USAA and other 3rd parties especially if you’re in an accident. USAASafePilot is designed to avoid giving you the 30% at all costs. One of the things it did was to reduce my score even though there were no infractions. I tried for 2 1/2 hours to get clarification about these issues from USAA or any of their support people without avail. So, word to the wise: if you have USAASafePilot turn your ignition off before utilizing your phone capabilities. Better yet, delete.

by Bug Hopper

The first few days I had USAASafePilot it was working fine it recorded when I left the house and when I returned it recorded just fine and then the other day it stopped working it didn't record when I left the house it only recorded my trip back and I thought well that's odd and I tried to see if there was a setting or something I know in advertently turned off or done some thing I couldn't find anything it's pretty straightforward and simple but it seems that maybe it's been hacked or something it's really odd it's doing it again it's not recording when I leave the house only on my return trip and when I open USAASafePilot it starts flashing and glitching a whole bunch so something definitely wrong with it and I hope this doesn't affect my rating because I'm an excellent driver and that's the only reason I decided to put it on because I'm an excellent driver and if I was a bad driver I don't think I'd want this thing on there😂 I hope you guys can fix it I tried to reach out to tech when it says do you want help with USAASafePilot click on something and it takes you to the USAA phone number which isn't any different than just calling the bank I thought there would be a dedicated chat or phone line or something to be sure that USAASafePilot is working properly

by Tate3441

I have been using this tedious and poorly designed app for over a year now, and so desperately waiting for the developers to fix it based on the massive complaints here. This is my third review over this period. Yes, It has made me follow less closely behind other cars, since to avoid losing points for USAASafePilot ’s calculation of “harsh braking”, I now stay about 75 feet behind the next car even in slow city areas. Also to avoid the harsh braking I have actually RUN RED LIGHTS because USAASafePilot is conditioning me NOT to use my brakes—hoping that will give the actuaries a heart attack reading this—lots of other reviews also say that is the unintended consequence. My driving log recently reset, and I got a decent discount on my upcoming renewal, which is the only saving Grace for USAASafePilot and is the only thing keeping me from leaving USAA after over 42 years because their car insurance rates are so high. At the moment, about a month after the score reset, I only have ONE point for Phone Handling, ONE after dozens of drives recorded and my score is only an 85 and the projected discount is only 6%. Makes a guy want to give up (on USAA)!

by Dema43

Both me and my husband have been using USAASafePilot for the past few months and have found it to be highly inaccurate. It it registers harsh breaking when there was none on the trip and records trips when my husband is driving as if I am the driver. I sometimes use the navigation feature on my phone if I am driving somewhere I am not familiar with and set this up before I even start the car, yet it dings me for phone handling when I have not touched the phone at all while I am driving. When we signed up for USAA, we agreed to use USAASafePilot because we are great drivers with no accidents or tickets on our driving record, yet USAASafePilot seems to indicate that we are terrible drivers. USAASafePilot does not function as stated and should be fixed. It seems as if USAA has intentionally made USAASafePilot super sensitive so they are not obligated to give their customers a discount on their insurance. Furthermore, they are gathering intel on your driving habits, which makes me wonder what they are doing with this valuable information. Frankly, I think this is a scam. Not worth the hassle.

by Nicksanders

I mean, I get the benefit to both USAA and the customer, but let’s be clear: you calling “hard braking” (or any other legally allowable behavior) an “infraction” is downright offensive. And it would seem to suggest that, rather than having an “infraction” when the idiot in front of me decides to come to a complete stop on the freeway, maybe I should plough right into him. And how is it that one could have a conversation with four people in the car where actual distractions can abound, but answering an incoming call hands-free for a three minute conversation is an “infraction?” That’s just stupid. And finally, don’t tell me I spent 10% of a four hour trip “handling my phone” when I never touched it for the entire trip. I used (actually sitting in the passenger seat after I stopped to let my wife take over because I was tired) CarPlay to respond to one text (again, by voice), and while I was driving, my wife - also via CarPlay - started an audiobook on Audible. You clearly have a lot of work to do, particularly before I agree to allow you to adjust my insurance rates based on terrible guessing, at best.

by Dink-dottie

I had a conversation yesterday with customer web support about problems with USAASafePilot . Among which were unrecorded trips and hands free calling infraction. The web rep recommended that I delete and reinstall USAASafePilot , which I did. Today, I have experienced the same problems. The hands free driving occurred as follows. I was driving home when I received a phone call from my daughter which was displayed on my enfotainment screen via Bluetooth. I did not answer it. When I reached a safe place I pulled off on another street and parked in a safe place. I shut my car off and exited the car to return the call. When call was completed I turned off my phone, got back in my car and completed my trip. As recorded in app, the remainder of the trip was recorded as an infraction for hands free calling. You have problems with USAASafePilot which need to be corrected or do away with USAASafePilot . It is a good concept, but it is mistakenly recording infractions which reflect badly on my driving record and will unfairly reduce my premium discount. Also, the last trip I made today was not recorded, a trip from the mall back home.
Thanks for consideration of my complaints.

by Counsel For The Defense

This program is very poor. It has said that I have handled my phone when I have not. It has said it is harsh breaking when your harsh breaking saves a wreck fir yourself and others due to another driver doing unsafe maneuvers. I use Dexcom that tells me when I have an urgent low blood sugar. To read what it is telling me I have to stop my car put it in park before I pick the phone up. If the phone slides even a little you get dinged for using it. I’ve been told to set it up in my car better or and others things like you need a holder for it. I’m not going to participate after all it causes me a great deal of anxiety. Also when they say the learning two weeks is just that and you start over at 100. That isn’t true. Mine started at 80. Oh and don’t listen to a book unless you have Apple Play cause that counts as phone usage also. In short their program has lots of flaws that takes us from being good drivers with a discount to basically crappy drivers all based on the flawed program. Am considering going to different insurance but they are starting to do this also. The only way to have a good driving record is drive in an empty parking lot and not drive often.

by MikeH24

Horribly frustrating. You want to pull over to the side of the road, turn off your vehicle, in order to make a phone call? Too bad, you just got dinged for using your phone while driving. GIVE US THE ABILITY TO DISPUTE TRIPS, NOT JUST THE OPTION TO CHANGE IF YOU’RE THE DRIVER OR PASSENGER. Let us DISPUTE that “hand-held driving” mark we got.

The “harsh breaking” “sensor” is probably the worse, though. I had a car the other day pull out in front of me so I had to slam the brakes. I’m talking tires screeching stop. Understandable, right? Well, it didn’t even notice that at all. I had zero “harsh breaks” during that trip. The VERY NEXT TIME I DROVE I was on an incline and came to a normal light stop. As soon as I started rolling backwards just slightly, I hit the breaks to stop from hitting the car behind me. It dinged me with “HaRsH bReAkInG.”

I guess SOME discount is better than nothing, but don’t advertise that you can get a higher discount rate if you’re going to ding drivers for every sneeze to reduce the amount. The system you are using isn’t working correctly. Sure, no hands on phone usage is great, but everything else is worthless. Just advertise as an anti-hands-on App and give people 10% off for that. Even this isn’t perfect and provides many false positives. But at least that gives realistic expectations.

by Sam Bam The Man

USAASafePilot is not good at keeping track of the driver from one six month period to the next one It would nice to know how much driving one must do to get a discount. USAASafePilot is not very good It should let know how many drivers are in the home. When someone like myself who doesn’t drive a whole lots should be taken into account Let the driver know when the discount . Start and stop period and when the vehicle is at stop and the phone is being hooked up to charge and not being counted again the driver. The sudden stop violations I have gotten penalized for someone changing lanes to make a turn that you can’t help with slam on your brakes. Also, the person passed if there is only one driver it should assume that person is the driver and not having to go through the information and make changes. driving history using auto pilot should come in to play also about things that are being penalized in the last two or three driving periods there was none of these violations, so the first 1 or 2 should not be counted against the driver. How much driving does it take before you get a discount that would be helpful also, I think I’ve mentioned that before because that really bothers me when I don’t know how much driving I need to do or what every!

by Blue_zebra22

The concept and idea behind USAASafePilot is awesome, however! It does a crappy job at distinguishing if you are driving or a passenger. So if you use your phone as a passenger 9/10, you’ll get dinged for it. I get the point is to possibly earn a sweet discount on our insurance and that in the end your score doesn't impact your insurance rate/policy, but when you follow all the rules and still get dinged for doing things right, what’s the point?

Also, getting dinged for hands free calling is lame. My car automatically connects to my speakers so I can take a call without ever taking my eyes off the road. I find that less dangerous than having a conversation with a person who’s IN your car where your more likely to take your eyes off the road and look at who your talking to. (Kids are a great example of this!) Why get penalized for utilizing tools that help you be a safe driver?

I wish there was a way to input feedback about your drive. For a competitive person like myself USAASafePilot is more frustrating to use than it’s worth. On top of that, your score gets averaged between all the drivers using USAASafePilot in your home. Sooo … yeah. At this rate we’ll barely earn any kind of discount with how USAASafePilot operates.

by J. E. Jacobs

I enrolled in the program, tried setting USAASafePilot up, but it got stuck on the step 3 of 4 with motion permissions. USAASafePilot kept taking me to the wrong settings page which didn’t have the options it wanted me to enable. So I ignored it. I got a few texts from USAA saying they haven’t been receiving driving data, etc., but when I called about this issue, they said they have been collecting data! So I went a whole month “blind”, not seeing the data being collected or having the two week learning period, and not knowing which trips I was the driver vs passenger. I take a lot of trips with my spouse where he drives, so immediately my score was terrible and the projected discount was a mere 3%. This is in light of me already never using my phone while driving even before enrolling in this program. Also the fact that you get dinged for hands-free calling (which the whole point of that is that it’s safer!!) is pretty annoying, as I need to be able to answer calls for my small business, which has me on the roads all the time. It should ding you for texting and browsing apps etc. but not for hands free calls and GPS etc. Also, it dinged me for harsh braking IN THE DRIVEWAY WHILE TURNING AROUND. Plus, I was using GPS the other day then the low battery message appeared on my screen, but I knew if I touched it to make the message go away, I’d be dinged for phone handling. Needs a lot of work!!

by Joakande

I have several griefs with USAASafePilot & the way USAA’s process works with it. When you first start the program you automatically get 10% off for participation. This is great & at least provides a minimum discount at first & should be at least that at all times. In reality After your initial enrollment 6 month premium is over however you can get anywhere from 0%-30%. That’s ridiculous how can you get a 0% discount!? there should be a minimum participation discount. Furthermore, USAASafePilot literally penalizes following the law cause it counts hands free calling against you. That’s literally one of the biggest complaints amongst all reviews. Hard braking is finicky, I live in Atlanta & there’s constant stop & go traffic & it’s counted breaks that really weren’t harsh at all. There also needs to be more transparency to the scoring system and how what scores relate to what discount %. Cause in my mind if the lowest score you can get is 0/100 on USAASafePilot than even someone above 50% should at least be able to get 5-10% discount on their insurance. Instead I’ve heard of other military families in the 70 range getting only 8% off I myself only received 2% in the high 60 range. It’s ridiculous especially when you get charged an arm and a leg for insurance in the first place.

by TexasReader61

Update: I now have 7 harsh braking. How???? There has been no harsh braking in weeks. USAASafePilot cheats and lies!

I’m giving this a two star only. I like the concept, however, it doesn’t take into account when someone pulls in front of me and forces me to put on my brakes. Nor does does it take into account that my cruise control sometimes will break because someone pulls in front of me. My cruise control is the advanced kind that senses when a car is ahead of me. I have it set up to allow at least three car lanes ahead of me if any car moves in between that or if I get close to another car, it slows down to keep that three car length minimum in between. however some people are stupid and just jump in that distance and wind up cutting me off/or causing the cruise control to break harshly. I’m not complaining about the cruise control. It does a good job sensing other cars, but USAASafePilot thinks that I am being careless when I’m not. I also noticed something else. I got 10 points taken off one day when I had zero infractions, no harsh breaking, no phone use, etc., so I called USAA to find out what’s going on. Turns out, distance can be a problem. The further I drive, the more I get points taken off. Now anybody who lives in Texas, like I do, knows that we’re spread out & nothing is close by. So I’m being penalized for driving the distance that is normal in Texas. I’m not sure USAASafePilot is worth it.

by BJM2220

Overall, rewarding good drivers with discounts and incentives is a fantastic idea and I applaud USAA for trying to incorporate this.

First, not always accurate in deciphering whether I am driving or not. Pretty good for the most part. However, when you are a passenger and get dinged for being on your phone there is no way to correct this.

My biggest gripe with USAASafePilot and why I gave it two stars is due to how much it counts against your score for Hands free calling. I understand talking on the phone is seen as distracting, but hands free should not be that big of a ding to someone’s score. Honestly, hands free should be rewarded. I don’t touch my phone. I use a button on my steering wheel or answer using my voice. The amount of time on hands free should be tracked and if a person uses hands free over a certain percent of driving time over days or weeks then the score should be affected. Not for one off calls to tell my wife I’m on the way home, etc. If the goal is to not allow people to get a discount for being overall good drivers with the exception of using hands free then that goal has been met. I would hope it is to reward overall good drivers though and I feel that goal has been missed.

by Chasssie

No consistency in detecting handheld vs. speaking via the vehicle auto speaker. It appears USAASafePilot counts even the very few hands free speaking as handheld. USAASafePilot also automatically deactivates itself from USAASafePilot detection process. Then when I return home it tells me I failed to have USAASafePilot in tracking mode or whatever it may say at the time and when I search the status in my phone - USAASafePilot is actually on correct settings or it changes settings automatically. I then have to re-set or republicans USAASafePilot . It appears USAASafePilot is very sensitive to the phone moving about as one drives - when the phone is sitting in the passenger seat. This needs addressing by USAA If they’re interested in gaining positive consumer feedback. Unless, this is how they intended to have it so they can justify increasing rates? Not sure but it appears this is the case. Also, they did not warn of the constant background battery usage wears down one’s phone’s battery life which can be very costly if one has to them replace the battery or the phone. There seams to be always a catch with these companies not being completely transparent with something that is mostly beneficial to them rather than the consumer. Not good.

by Lyn Lindberg

USAASafePilot is great in theory, the reason for my review is that it’s not a very forgiving app the fact that have hands free in your and you or your wife are in the same car and you answer it it’s considered a infraction ?? In Florida you must use hands free! Also, when you have kids and they you need to answer the phone you receive another infraction?? Stupid!! Also, during the trial period. We were driving to go home and the traffic light turned yellow with no one behind nor in front of me, rather than run it I opted to stop and I received a infraction for using my break a little harder to stop that was the infraction? Stupid! I don’t run yellow traffic lights ever, and I don’t speed I do the speed limit and use my directional light for turns always. I’m a very, very safe driver. USAASafePilot is great however, it’s a Tattle Tail and it makes me very nervous as if big brother is watching my every move! I’m going to try it for a month or so and if I’m continuing to get these petty infractions for the sake of driving safe I’ll discontinue using it. I take great pride in my driving skills and my driving record of 63 years. I’m glad to be a part of the USAA family. I was with GEICO for over fifty two years.
Thank you
Lyle Lindberg

by TedTZ

This application ostensibly provides a credible means by which to evaluate a driver’s safe performance …. in normal times. However, the time of Covid has not been normal, thus one must take issue with USAASafePilot’s efficacy. Traffic law enforcement has declined significantly during the pandemic throughout the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. One observes — many times during the course of a day — drivers routinely speeding 10 to 15 miles over the limit on city streets; speeding 15 to 20 miles over the limit on highways and interstates; running red lights and stop signs; etc. Their actions create situations where you, the safe driver, have to react with extreme, defensive driving maneuvers. USAASafePilot has penalized me for five sudden braking events, each of which were in reaction to dangerous events caused by other drivers. When a driver runs a red light, would it be better for me to run into him? Or is the better choice for me to brake hard to avoid collision? The latter is, indeed, the course of action to follow, but the net effect is for me to be penalized. This is the reason I take issue with the utility of USAASafePilot.

by VacationPlanner

Been using about a year and it was really poor at the onset. USAA technical difficulties for iPhone stopped their ability to track my data in August 2021, so my 28% discount earned in previous 5 months was not credited in September. Started a new cycle in September. Had 3 harsh braking for deer, a parking lot speeder and avoiding a small child, one phone call/phone handling for an active shooter alert at my workplace, and 1 harsh braking accrued after the mid-term reset. For that one harsh braking and all 0’s otherwise, my discount dropped to 23%—score of 89. Don’t believe them when they tell you that it will average out over time. It doesn’t. They also penalize you for driving high mileage, but in my case, I was also penalized for not driving enough to accrue data. I commute with my spouse and one car was in the shop for a month. Cannot win. Overall, it would be a better choice to resume using my Google maps for directions if I need to & to make my commute more productive by making calls if I am going to be penalized severely for one phone handling in 6 months anyway.

by I Love SkyDrive

I have had a few instances in about a month of usage where USAASafePilot erroneous reports hands free calling. Just yesterday I pulled over while driving on a long trip to call my wife. I got out of the car to walk around with the phone so it would understand I've stopped and not register as a call made during a drive. USAASafePilot picked up as hands free calling because the phone had a Bluetooth connection to the vehicle. I switched to handset after starting the call--all while outside the vehicle and after having walked around. App recorded a hands free call of 120 miles regardless. My score dropped by 17 points from this one bug. USAASafePilot needs a pause button so you can tell it when you're pulling over to do something. I'm not sure USAASafePilot is viable long-term until these kinds of bugs are addressed or features added so you can help it understand your activity. By the way, there is no way to get support or submit a bug with a screen shot. Calling USAA to report a bug gets folks who are confused about what to do.

by Jackgillis

USAA purportedly had a good idea to supposedly reward its safe drivers but you have to wonder if it is just a gimmick. Three trips I have been dinged for using my phone hands-free. However I have not touched my phone, answered a call, or sent a text while driving. I called support but shouldn’t have wasted the time. At first I was told that my score wouldn’t be affected unless I did this like a hundred times. I asked then why my score dropped 7 points when USAASafePilot erroneously recorded hands free phone use and was told that was because of the infraction. But I thought it didn’t affect my score unless it was like a hundred uses? The response was I can’t change the errors and I can’t fix it. So, be prepared, you may get a small discount but nowhere near what is advertised. Is it a gimmick? You decide. Just be forewarned, USAA is nowhere near the company it was when I joined 48 years ago. Customer service is almost nonexistent, rates are sky high as they accept anyone remotely connected to a veteran. When it was officers only it was a fantastic company.

by Bunnybuggie

Generally USAASafePilot is a good idea. But USAASafePilot doesn’t tell you what exactly is phone handling. I’ve set my maps and music while parked in a parking lot before driving at all, and yet it dings me randomly throughout the drive as phone handling.
The phone call measure is strange to me. If I answer via the steering wheel, I sometimes get dinged or sometimes not. Same goes for me asking Siri to call XYZ — sometimes dinged, sometimes not. It seems unreasonable to think people will never call anyone during any drive, so I’m quite confused what that feature helps. Plus answering via Siri or steering wheel is just as much of a minor multi-task as skipping a song or turning up the volume via Siri or steering wheel.
The harsh breaking is probably more useful and accurate. But sometimes you have to brake because someone cuts in front of you in traffic or a fast light that goes from yellow to red quickly. Those situations are not safer to brake, but you’re incentivized to avoid harsh braking.
Also, I wish there was an option besides just driver or passenger. Sometimes a passenger texts someone for you or calls someone for you, and there’s no way to select something like: someone else used my phone.

by Rtrim3

USAASafePilot is a great idea. I have worked hard to comply with the guidelines to ensure a safer driving experience. HOWEVER, it definitely needs tweaking to make it effective and usable for more drivers. People, including me, buy safety conveniences on their vehicles to have a safer driving experience. ( Hands free no phone touch calling.) USAASafePilot penalizes you for using. This should be reconsidered in the programming. I have on a number of occasions, pulled into a parking lot, parked and then picked up my phone to find an address or make a call. USAASafePilot almost always penalizes me thus making my effort to stop and be safe as wasted time. Clean this feature up. There are several places on my routine drive that are fairly steeply down hill to a turn. Sometimes, and not near always, USAASafePilot will penalize for harsh braking. This may need tweaking. My truck has the systems where it protects against getting too close to an object front and back. Sometimes, the sensors designed to protect are inadvertently tripped by a steep (but not dangerous) grade, a curb or even a tall weed. It applies the brakes immediately and triggers USAASafePilot to harsh breaking. Again, a safety feature causes a penalization. This could be harder to fix.

by Monkeymc

Update: App updates sepárate hands free calling from phone usage. But it still requires constant attention marking whether you were passenger or driver. I do get good laughs out of rides where it says I have 80% phone use because I was the passenger and started Waze after the ride started. This is still not a install it and forget it app.

App randomly marks whether I’m the passenger or driver whether there is one or both drivers on policy in car. My self-driving car uses the Bluetooth on the phone to pull addresses to GPS (all via voice commands), which gets dinged as a hands free call. If I answer a call hands free as a passenger, I get dinged. Counts random activities that aren’t driving like skiing and riding bike as driving. Can’t tell if you’re in your car on the road or doing laps at the race track in a track car. Doesn’t matter what car you’re in or who is driving, USAASafePilot will blame you for bad driving. Basically, USAASafePilot is too basic for its intended purpose. We used to have the little trackers from USAA in the actual car and that at least tracked the car and not the passenger, riding a bike, or being in someone else’s car. It gets three stars because using USAASafePilot gets you a 10% minimum discount. Don’t expect more.

by Fayaline

I downloaded USAASafePilot because my insurance was raising $30 a month due to what they said was changes based off other insurance companies…now while I’ve like you guys for a while that seems a little ridiculous to me. I’m a safe driver, no accidents. So I decided to try USAASafePilot out. While it has helped to lower my monthly I find it a little annoying. When I’m the passenger and on my phone constantly in that trip it still can’t tell I’m not driving. I’m having to continually update it even when I’ve changed settings and told it on the first part I’m the passenger.

What I’d like to see fixed is the harsh breaking. I don’t think it’s fair to be dinged when I live in an area with horrible drivers and have to break to avoid being hit or hitting an idiot who doesn’t stop when they are supposed too (sadly this is often in Portland…). I understand the purpose is to be off our phones. But my job does require I use my hands free calling in my car at times and I again don’t like that I get dinged for that when I can’t just ignore the call always. I drive a lot for a living.

I’m highly now considering just deleting USAASafePilot and switching insurance companies all together. The concept of USAASafePilot is good. The execution needs some modification.

by DangerGirl37

I’ve used USAASafePilot for the past 2 years. While I like that it helps me achieve a discount on my auto insurance, there are a few things I don’t like about USAASafePilot . Once your score takes a hit, I feel like it takes awhile to build it back up. USAASafePilot doesn’t decipher if you’re the driver or the passenger either. Often times when I’m the passenger, I forget to change the settings in USAASafePilot to reflect that. So when I do go in, my score is already lower and even though it states “this drive won’t count towards your score” I feel like it does.

There are a lot of times I will sit in my car after I get off work and make the necessary phone calls I need to make before I start driving. Yet, even with my phone turned over and locked, USAASafePilot often states I had “hands free calling” from the moment I leave the parking lot till about half a mile up the road even though I wasn’t on it while driving.

Another feature I don’t like is the harsh breaking. I don’t think the creators took into account that even though there are people who leave distance between cars while driving, there are still the jerks who think they can squeeze their vehicle between you and the person in front of you. Which then causes you to break harshly sometimes. Thus going against your score and lowering it.

by Buntings

Overall, USAASafePilot is great with a few significant issues. Other than harsh braking, phone handling, and phone use, the score is arbitrary to the driver as there is no apparent or disclosed reasons for point deductions. The algorithm is not provided. For example, if I take a short drive at or just under the speed limit, take turns at moderate normal safe speed, and drive otherwise perfectly, don’t touch my phone, etc USAASafePilot will deduct one or two points for undisclosed reasons, so there is no way for a driver to improve without reasonable feedback. Often, when I drive to get gas or stop to drop off something or pull over to
make a call in a parking lot (engine off, Apple ios driver focus off), USAASafePilot counts going to and returning from the gas station or parking lot as a single drive even though I was stopped for about 5 minutes with the engine off - just using my phone attached wallet seems to trigger point deductions when stopped. After almost two months of driving, I’m still waiting for a discount, again without specific feedback of when the discount is awarded (how many miles, hours, days, etc). As a result, USAASafePilot is frustrating due to lack of accurate scoring and limited feedback. I wrote the review hopeful that USAA will pay attention and fix the issues. It’s a great app, just needs maturity and more disclosure and feedback regarding scoring.

by Chris1Kit2

As with many of the reviews already here I’m not happy with how USAASafePilot rates good vs bad driving. I don’t feel like hands free calling should be held against me. But it is so I mostly ignore phone calls while driving. On the rare occasions I do pick up, I pull over but am still dinged for a hands free call even though I stopped driving. My harsh braking incidents are few and far between. Usually when a traffic signal turns yellow right at the decision point but even then I’m not screeching to a halt, it’s just a more aggressive stop than normal. Or when someone pulls out in front of me so I have to break hard or have a wreck. In both cases I brake harder than normal for safety reasons but I get dinged. Then I get dinged when my wife or one of my kids picks up my phone to look at something or text someone while I’m driving. It seems like all the dings I get are pretty questionable. But the worst part is that the example on USAASafePilot Store has so many dings… I mean, a lot of them… yet still has a score in the 80s. I literally have 2 phone handling, 0 hand held calling, 5 hands free calling, and 4 harsh breaking with an overall score of 74. And I can argue that every one of the dings I’ve gotten is suspect. How can double-digits in each of those in the example have a score in the 80s? It seems like they’re saying if I drive worse, I’ll be rewarded. But I’m sure that’s not true.

by Mr . Cc

It’s hard for me to discredit something that is supposed to benefit me. But sadly, when it comes to braking, I typically do not have a choice. I can drive as safely as possible (which means the speed limit or with traffic. Not under) but still have only so much control about defensive measures. If someone decides they’re just going to pull out from a turn lane without the right of way, I can only do so much. And if someone decides to suddenly slam on their brakes with no turn signal, I can only do so much. I can try and keep my distance and slow down to be safe. But I am going to great other unsafe situations in doing so. If USAASafePilot could adapt to the fact that braking is a defensive measure (especially in specific towns with drivers who make their own rules) it would have five stars. But that is not the case. All in all I’m happy to have a discount but getting docked almost 30% while trying to avoid those who do not care about the people in vehicles around them. It’s just frustrating. Would only recommend if you happen to live in suburbia.

by Philsomers1

I have experienced several misrepresentations in this application. First and most important is phone handling when I’m physically not driving. Example: I drive to a store, park my truck and turn it off, I remove phone from mount and it says I’m handling phone while I’m driving. I believe it could be the interface “Car Play” app that connects my Apple iPhone to my truck, that’s the only thing I can assume. Also the hard breaking is unrealistic, there are times when fast braking is necessary to avoid a mishap, example: I was driving in a residential neighborhood at 25 mph, a child darted out from between parked cars and I had to hard break to avoid hitting the child, no skidding no loss of control of truck, just heavy breaking to avoid a bad situation, my truck is equipped with antilock brakes and I am a very competent driver. The specs on USAASafePilot needs to be updated to relate to the vechile year, make and model, otherwise it just general and non specific and doesn’t actually reflect the overall performance of a driver

by Dylan1sM3

Listen, I really want to like and appreciate USAASafePilot, but it’s incredibly frustrating when I commonly drive with passengers and I often want to allow them to pick songs and read/respond to texts for me while I’m driving and it counts it against me. I just wish there was a way for me to mark certain hits for phone usage as passenger uses, because it very strongly effects my score. USAASafePilot just recommends not allowing passengers to use your phone but that to me is pretty unreasonable to ask when it’s the responsible thing to have the passenger be the one changing and adjusting music and responding to texts. It also counts hands-free calls against you which tell me the difference between a hands free call and talking to you passenger. Other than that, it allows you to pick if you were the driver or not and it’s generally a very user friendly app that works pretty well. I just wish they’d make that one change to make USAASafePilot worth having, because the way it sits, I doubt I’ll get much for discounts.

by Alinacmarie

I got USAASafePilot being told by a USAA Agent that it would only be 21 days long. The "learning period" was great, and it seemed to be working well. I soon learned that the learning period didn't even count towards my score, and was never told how many days it would be. I've called and tried many different likes at the USAA department, and I can never contact someone who knows a thing about USAASafePilot or how to fix something.

Furthermore, I constantly find my score going down when I have 0 harsh braking, 0 phone use, 0 hand held calling, and 0 non hand help calling. Not sure why my score has gone down to 88 when I am driving really well. I would love to be able to contact someone who knows something about USAASafePilot. Also noticed that when i'm the passenger, and put it in USAASafePilot , it lowers my score by 1 each time??? Very frustrated.

I also see some parts of USAASafePilot saying I could get up to 30% off my premium but on the website it says only 10%. If someone could please contact me or give me an email or a phone number to contact I would appreciate it so much.

by Ajd12343434567875763236675

I have just started using USAASafePilot and it has been working ok so far except for two flaws I have noticed. I live in an area were people change lanes without notice and without checking to see if someone is in the lane they want to move into, of course when this happens you have to hit the brakes hard or in modern cars it will do it for you. When the happens you get penalized for preventing an accident or would USAA rather we do not prevent accidents when another driver does something dumb and unsafe completely out our control. I think there should be someway to make it clear as to why these things happen. The other problem I have found is completely ridiculous, my phone rang while I was driving, of course a ringing phone is a distraction and of course purposely annoying, the problem comes with the fact that when I pressed the button on my steering wheel it silence/ignore the call I got penalized for a hand free call, for pressing a button on the steering wheel

by Provdi

Please do not take this the wrong way, any discount during these hard times is a bonus to any household. It is very difficult to understand your point system. I saw that for any infractions the point were deducted immediately, but for non-infraction driving the points were very hard to come by. My understanding is that you get dinged with an infraction when you use hands free calling and I get that, but what about hands-free calling while parked and the timing of it. I would like to have USAASafePilot alert you that it is now monitoring your safe driving, so when you start to move you have the opportunity to hang up your call. That should hold true for getting stuck in traffic for a prolonged time. USAASafePilot should determine that by learning the traffic/patterns colors that displayed under the maps app. Have to say one good thing about USAASafePilot it has made me very conscience how I drive as I can see based on the score I earn. Thank your for giving your insureds this incentive to save more on their policy.

by WookieWagner88

First and foremost no matter what kind of driver you are you will get the bare minimum of 10% off. That doesn’t change. I was not aware till I called USAA. I’ve been thinking of using this for a while to save some money and saw all the reviews ranging from poor to atrocious. After using USAASafePilot for a while now, don’t take too much stock in the scathing remarks. USAASafePilot does exactly what’s it’s supposed to. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars because they definitely can fine tune some things, such as, I wish they had a feature to designate yourself as a passenger, what if I’m handling my wife’s phone when she’s driving, etc. However to that point it does well identifying between my wife and I so far. So maybe some people need to just accept the 10% or improve your driving skills. Lastly, it does appear based off earlier reviews USAA made some adjustments to improve functionality. Hope this helps in your decision. For me it was an easy 10% off. Anything more is a cherry on top.

by Thysten

I’m not rating this 5 stars because there is a drawback to using this. It does provide a good discount for me with the exception of one issue. Let me explain. USAA, you should really consider adding another option rather than just I was the driver, I was the passenger, and this was not a drive. You should add something to be able to differentiate when your phone was used by someone else in the vehicle. My children use my phone all the time in the vehicle so I don’t have to answer my phone or text while driving. The only options I am able to use right now to avoid lowering my score also don’t help my score any. There should be some way to do this without it affecting my score while also being able to take care of things I need taken care of while driving (I.e. my children with my phone). I tell them things like make a note of this or text your dad this or something like that. I shouldn’t have to have my score reflect things like this or not have the drive count because of little things like above mentioned scenario.

by Gaetanoschild

My husband and i decided to download the USAA Safepilot app and join the program because we both thought that our driving habits could possibly lower our insurance premiums.

USAASafePilot henerally works well. It tracks your trips in good detail and then will let you know when you are doing something that is not safe for you to do, like harsh handling or braking, or using your phone in any way while driving. So far I like USAASafePilot , and i am aware that it is tracking trips so i need to pay attention at all times to my driving.

However, here’s the problem. If there are two people and two phones in the car and they both have USAASafePilot and the phones are tracking the trip, USAASafePilot cannot recognize which person was driving unless you indicate it on USAASafePilot after the trip is recorded. The same thing can happen to anyone using USAASafePilot , so one needs to be aware of this, correct all settings on your phones before starting your trip, and then do not touch your phone while driving! Users of USAASafePilot will also need to remember to indicate who was driving after the trip is recorded.

by ChelleNinja

This has had me harsh breaking more times than I can remember. I do sometimes harsh break, but I’m not going to run into someone or run over a child or animal just because I don’t want a hit on my SafePilot. But the real one that gets me, is recording me handling/using my phone when I’m not even on it! I pull over to use my phone occasionally, but what really made me mad was when I phoned a friend from my driveway to tell her I’m on my way, hung up, and then texted here that I was there in her driveway and it recorded me on the phone the whole 20 miles I was driving as using my phone! It’s done that several times and yes I hung up, how could I have texted if it wasn’t disconnected from the previous call? And if you receive a robocall it records that even if you don’t answer it. ( which I seldom do). But now I’m in danger of losing my discount if I don’t reconnect. Wish there was a complaint department for USAASafePilot.

by Dmfh22

USAASafePilot has gotten better since you’re now able to fix incorrect trip classifications. USAASafePilot still thinks I’m driving when I’m actually just out riding my mountain bike and frequently docks me points for touching my phone while on a bike ride, but I love that i can go back and tell USAASafePilot that the trip wasn’t actually a drive. Same goes for when you’re a passenger and not the driver. Fantastic improvement to USAASafePilot .

And all the people who whine about hands free calling and harsh braking scores just don’t understand basic statistics. Those are statistical indicators for people who are more likely to be in auto accidents than people who never brake harshly or don’t answer phone calls at all while driving (hands free or not, your attention is divided if you are driving and talking on the phone).

by Ladnar123

I don’t generally handle my phone while driving except to use maps or change the song like I would on the stereo, USAASafePilot is great and recognizing when I have the maps app open but when changing a song it sings me which doesn’t make sense to me since it’s the same as pressing the button on the car stereo. My biggest issue is when I have a passenger who is on my phone for whatever reason while I’m driving. I’m not doing anything to get dinged for but I can’t say it was someone else using my phone which presents an issue when I have my nieces or nephew in my car and they want to play on my phone. I’m not getting a good report and if I change it to being the passenger then I lose all positives about my drive. I think there should be a setting of passenger used phone so the driver can still get good credit without being dinged by someone else using the phone.

by AKRetUSA

This program has made both my wife and I much better drivers that are alert to situations that might become a harsh braking incident. We watch for situations that may cause sudden braking and apply our brakes earlier to prevent the incident. The one problem that we encounter is avoiding phone use when someone calls us and the built in phone answering system answers the call before we can hit the cancel button. If we don’t answer the system does and plays the caller’s voicemail message as it records the message. The Safe Driver program counts that none answer as a call. The other difficult situation is when you have been trying to reach someone like a doctor, nurse, or a family member and they finally return your call. Even if you pull over as fast as you can safely and take the call and turn off the car the system will record it as phone violation.

However even with these situations the benefits of the program far outweigh any problem situations. The substantial discount you receive and the improvements in your skills make the program a valuable asset.

by Dixie88Doodle

It takes a point deduction when your phone is utilized while driving. For example if your phone moves for ANY reason such as bumped or falling in floor or if a passenger uses it. It will determine that the driver touched the phone and is distracted. I contacted USAA and proposed this issue and their work around was have someone else use their phone instead of the drivers. I explained various scenarios such as the driver phone is GPS or music and the passenger touches the phone to adjust said items, while the driver is focusing on the road…still point deductions. I also tried explaining that I was getting deductions even though I, the driver was not touching my phone and they said once again to have my passenger use my phone and to leave mine alone. Overall, I don’t know if it’s a great app yet or not. I do know that other drivers affect my score such as if something happens and I have to hit my brakes..deduction. You could honestly be the safest driver ever and still get deductions which is wild to me. Anyways give it a try but play the long game. They say the discount applies to your next premium so prepare for a possible discount maybe for months away.

by BlickTX

A couple of suggestions - 1) app support should open an active page; 2) May we have an explanation added to our trip data? So far (not long at all) I had accumulated a lot of zeros. Loving that, and the bragging rights that go with it. But - today I was driving, my sound was off on my phone, my Beloved Husband was holding my purse when the vibrations began - and continued. Since we have family, friends, and doctors, he opened my purse and phone to check. Nothing serious in texts, but there were several informative ones. He put it away, gave me a brief overview, we thought nothing of it - until we got home and I had a USAA notification of phone handling. I’f I had an option to say: loaned phone, or any other explanation that it wasn’t me, it would be helpful. I’d prefer that to: “Don’t ever touch my phone in the car again!!!” An overall look at my driving record will show over time, but I dislike that “1” hanging out there.