How do Families work?
Concept
Operators in the Drive with Safety app may be organized into Families. Members of a Family can see each other’s locations, trips, and driving scores.
How do I invite others to my Family?
Step 1: Log into your My Account profile at www.SafetyInsurance.com, select your auto policy from the drop down, and navigate to the “Policies” tab to enroll more drivers from your policy Step 2: SMS text invite is sent to each driver you enrolled to download the “Drive with Safety” app Step 3: Create a Family in the app and share your family code with your members Step 4: Members join family with code
Inquiries may also be made via email: drivewithsafety@safetyinsurance.com Safety Insurance: 877-951-6429.
How does Driver Tracking work?
You never need to start, stop, open, or close the Drive with Safety app to accurately capture your driving. The app will work autonomously in the background of your phone.
The app is “sleeping” in the background waiting for driving-like behavior. (It does this to minimize data and battery consumption when you are not driving.) When it sees movement that looks like driving (e.g., speed, location), the app begins recording more precisely. The data from each trip is stored and processed so you can access the route you took, the distance and time you drove, and scoring, which will be based on the factors of speeding, acceleration, cornering, and phone use, with the driving tip information displayed in the app.
How does Drive with Safety know when I’m the driver?
The Drive with Safety app uses cutting-edge technology that analyzes numerous aspects of your driving and behavior to identify whether you are a driver in a car, a passenger in a car, or traveling via some other mode of transit.
On occasion, the app may mis-classify a trip. When this happens, you can tap on the trip, and edit the mode of transportation by tapping the transit mode icon on the top right. This information helps the app better classify future trips.
What do the icons next to my trips mean?
For each trip you take, the Drive with Safety app identifies and indicates your mode of travel with an icon.
You were the driver of a car.*
You were a car passenger.
You were traveling on public transit, like a subway, bus, or train.
You were using another mode of transit, like an airplane, boat, bike, or motorcycle.
You were on a walk or run.
You were travelling by any other transportation method.
*These trips count towards your score.
If the app incorrectly identifies your mode of travel, just tap the individual trip in question and correct the mode of transportation by tapping the transit icon on the top right of the map. You can also confirm correct predictions this way. Confirming and correcting trips helps improve the predictions the Drive with Safety app makes on future trips.
How does Drive with Safety affect my battery life?
Like any app that uses your location, Drive with Safety can affect your battery life. However, the app is very careful about when and how it uses your location, particularly your phone’s GPS feature. The app is continually optimizing for improved battery performance.
Although battery performance can vary by device and is affected by the other apps you are using, in general, the Drive with Safety app uses a negligible amount of battery when you are not driving, and slightly more battery while you are taking a trip. Most people will not notice a significant difference in battery use after installing the Drive with Safety app. However, if you have a particularly long commute or an older phone, you may want to plug in your device while driving.
Additionally, the Drive with Safety app will help to preserve your battery when your phone is in low power mode by not recording trips. *
*On iOS, your phone will ask if you want to enter low power mode when your battery is at less than 20% capacity. On Android, your phone’s manufacturer sets the low power threshold, but it is generally between 15% and 25%.
How do I update my Drive with Safety app?
We are always working to make the Drive with Safety app better, and frequently push out updates that improve on existing features and add new ones.
To ensure you are running the latest and greatest version of Drive with Safety (as well as all your other apps), we recommend setting your phone to automatically update apps.
On iOS, follow these steps:
- Tap Settings > App Store.
- If you are not already signed in, sign in with your Apple ID.
- Turn on the content that you want to automatically download, in this case “App Updates.”
If you decide not to automatically update your apps, you will need to manually update Drive with Safety.
On Android, follow these steps:
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- At the top right, tap the profile icon.
- Tap Settings and then Network Preferences and then use Auto-update apps.
- Select an option: a. Over any network: Updates apps at any time, using either Wi-Fi or mobile data. b. Over Wi-Fi only: Updates only when you are connected to Wi-Fi.
To check for updates on iOS:
- Open the App Store and tap the silhouette icon in the top right corner to view all available updates.
- If updates are available, tap Update All, or find the app you would like to update (like Drive with Safety) and tap “Update.”
- If asked, enter your Apple ID password.
To check for updates on Android:
- Open the Google Play Store app.
- Tap Menu and then My Apps & Games.
- Apps with available updates are labeled “Update.”
- Tap Update All to update all apps. For individual apps, find the specific app you want to update (such as Drive with Safety) and tap Update.
iOS Permissions Explained
Listed below are the permissions requested as well as the reasons for doing so:
App Location Services
This allows us to determine where you are using your phone’s GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular connections. We use this data determine when you are driving and analyze your trips, as well as to share your location with Family members. We generally refresh your location when you move a significant distance, so the battery impact of Drive with Safety is minimal when you are not driving. When you are on a trip, we work hard to use the absolute minimum amount of battery power needed to accurately record your trip. We require the location services setting to be set on “Always.”
Motion & Fitness
We require the Motion Activity permission on phones with motion co-processors. This permission lets us save you a substantial amount of battery power, since we can use some motion data that your phone is already collecting via a specialized low-power processor, rather than using your phone’s main processor to collect the same data. This also lets us make better determinations of when you are driving, so we spend less time using your phone’s GPS, which is by far the biggest driver of battery consumption.
We strongly encourage you to allow notifications, which permits the app to send you notifications when trips are not recording so that you get back on track. Select “Allow” when prompted on the screen to make sure you receive notifications.
Android Permissions Explained
Listed below are the permissions requested as well as the reasons for doing so:
App Location
This allows us to determine where you are using your phone’s GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular connections. We use this data to determine when you are driving and to analyze your trips, as well as to share your location with Family members. We generally refresh your location when you move a significant distance, so the battery impact of Drive with Safety is minimal when you are not driving. When you are on a trip, we work hard to use the absolute minimum amount of battery power needed to accurately record your trip.
Phone
We require the Phone permission so we can accurately measure Distracted Driving. This permission lets us look at whether you are making calls while you are driving (although, hands-free calls do not count against you). The Drive with Safety app does not log, listen to, or otherwise store anything about your calls. This permission is used only to determine if you were on a call during a trip.
How do scores work?
In the Drive with Safety app, your score is a measure of how safely you drive.
Your score is based on a combination of factors, they are:
- Hard Braking – When braking, make sure to give yourself enough time and distance to react. Great drivers will anticipate the need to stop and do so gradually. A useful technique is to stay at least 3 seconds behind the car in front of you.
- Speeding – Please pay attention to posted speed limits. Not only will this keep you safe, but you can also avoid getting a ticket. When you speed, you have less time to react to unexpected situations on the road. In turn, other drivers around you also have less time to react to your situation. Stay safe!
- Acceleration –Harsh forward accelerations are unsafe maneuvers that also waste your gas. By accelerating smoothly, you can have a huge impact on your fuel economy and maintain better control of your vehicle.
- Cornering – Cornering is best done smoothly and precisely. Remember to accelerate gradually and only after you have completed the turn. If you find yourself or your passengers leaning too much while turning, it is not gradual enough. Be sure to use your signals and ease into your turns.
- Phone Use – It’s very important to not touch your phone while driving. Drivers who use their phone while driving are 8x more likely to get into an accident. Texting while driving is extremely unsafe and greatly reduces reaction time. Please consider your safety and the safety of others around you.
Each factor above also is scored from 0-100, where 100 is the safest. In addition to the two-week score, there are also star ratings for each overall trip score computed by combining five trip subscores.
Star ratings for individual categories and the overall star rating are determined directly from the matching subscore and the overall score. The score values are put into five stars, with higher numbers indicating more desirable behaviors. A desirable behavior is defined as a combination of fewer, shorter, and less severe negative events for the trip. The star rating system is:
= 100 = 5 stars
= 90 = 4 stars
= 80 = 3 stars
= 70 = 2 stars
<70 = 1 star
The stars serve as an indicator of incidents, so you can see what sorts of things happened on a trip when you’re looking through the trip list. Looking at the map for where the actual speeding events occurred is likely to be a lot more informative than just looking at the stars. Keep in mind that the score assigned to the drive doesn’t reflect the difference between rare events and frequent events; the scores are just intended to give you a measure of what happened on that specific drive.
If you are unhappy with your score, you can improve it quickly with each additional trip. The score is designed to focus on more recent trips, so a few safe rides will quickly raise your score.
How are detected driving events used to generate a trip score?
An occurrence of a specific risk factor that is scored for each trip is called an event. For a trip, each event category (braking, speeding, hard cornering, phone use) is assigned a risk assessment. The overall trip risk score is a weighted combination of these sub-risks.
For each subscore, the total risk points over the scoring interval are normalized per distance. This risk per distance value is characterized against a reference set of driving data to determine whether the risk happens rarely or frequently. The frequency is then translated into the score (between 100 and 40).
For the overall score, the risk from each risk factor is weighted and summed together. The overall score weighs speeding and distraction the most heavily and weighs acceleration events and cornering less heavily. This weighted aggregated risk is normalized by distance and then translated to the overall score based on whether it is rare or is frequent.
Because the overall score is a weighted average of the risk factors and not the subscores, having an extremely large amount of risk of any subtype can dramatically lower the total overall score. For example, if a driver frequently speeds well above the posted limit, but drives safely in every other respect, the overall score will be low because the risky speeding behavior is so frequent that it means that risk of all types combined is also very frequent.
I’ve taken a drive, why don’t I have a score?
If you are not seeing an overall score after your first drive, there are a few reasons to review:
- Drive with Safety has not been granted required permissions. The app needs authorization to use your location, and if you have turned off location services globally or revoked the apps authorization, it may be unable to record your driving. Make sure your location services are enabled both globally and for the Drive with Safety app specifically.
- Your trip is not done processing. After you complete a trip, it generally takes around five minutes for Drive with Safety to compile your driving data, send it to our servers for processing, and get the results back into your app. Try waiting a few minutes and returning to the app.
- We did not think that you were driving. Tap on your user icon and then pull the panel with your name and score on it towards the top of the screen. You should see a list of trips below it. If none of the trips have a steering wheel or car icon next to them, we have not yet detected you as a driver. To correct a trip, tap on it from the trip list, then tap the icon in the upper right of the trip detail view that appears. Note that you can only correct your own trips.
- You were in Travel Mode during the trip. If you enabled Travel Mode (for airplane flights or long train journeys) your trips will not be recorded.
- You force-quit the Drive with Safety app. Although in some cases forcing the app to close still will result in your trips being captured, in other cases, the app may not be able to resume itself in the background. On both iOS and Android devices, force-quitting Drive with Safety will not improve your battery life or device performance.
How do I see where my kids are?
The Drive with Safety app allows you to see the location of anyone who has joined your Family.
Family member locations are indicated with user icons, which will have either the family member’s name/initial or a photo, if they have set one.
To zoom in on a family member and see their location more precisely, tap on their user icon below the map.
If you are the first user of Drive with Safety in your family, you will want to invite additional members to your Family through Safety Insurance. If Family members already are using Drive with Safety, they can be invited to a new or preexisting Family.
How can I make my location private?
The Drive with Safety app allows you to suspend and resume location sharing. You can do this by accessing the menu at top left, selecting “Location Sharing”, and then turning location sharing on or off.
Someone’s location hasn’t updated in a while, what’s going on?
To get the latest locations of your Family members, tap anywhere on the map (not on a Family member). The refresh and re-center buttons will appear on the lower right of the map. Tap the refresh button to get the latest location data available for your Family members.
The locations of other members of your Family update as they move. If they are in a moving vehicle, you should see their locations update approximately every five minutes. If a Family member has been in the same place for a while, the app may not update their location to save battery life, but their location will update if they start moving.
There are several conditions that could cause a Family member’s location to stop updating. If their battery is low and their phone is in low power mode, the app will stop updating their location. If a Family member turns their phone off, uninstalls the app, or disables location services, you also may stop seeing updates. The same is true if they are in an area where their phone cannot access the internet. Disabling wi-fi or push notifications also may adversely affect location performance.
Where can I find the Drive with Safety Terms of Use and Privacy Policy?
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy are available on our website and within Drive with Safety from the Settings Menu.
How do I report a problem or suggest an improvement?
If you run into issues or have an idea, contact us through the app. You can do this by accessing the menu at the top left on the map screen and selecting “Help.” You can then send an email to the support team. You can also send an email directly via drivewithsafety@safetyinsurance.com.
I have a problem or question that is not addressed here
Please email us at drivewithsafety@safetyinsurance.com or call 877-951-6429.