How apps have made it possible to reward good driving behaviour
Apps have added a unique dimension to the human struggle for motivation. As we all know, motivation is an unlimited resource, but often an elusive one as well. Everyone has occasional visions of themselves accomplishing huge things—running a marathon, starting a business, finally finishing Infinite Jest for real this time, etc.—but those visions are all too frequently derailed by a lack of motivation to follow through.
What we also know, however, is that one of the best antidotes for a lack of motivation is an influx of accountability. And that's where apps come in. Apps have unlocked a capacity for tracking, regulating, and analyzing our lives that our ancestors could only have dreamed of. The pursuit of any sort of goal we have can be aided—and in many cases, made better or more efficient—by the presence of an app. The technology can serve as a surrogate for a watchful friend of professional who has agreed to provide that eye of accountability. In many cases, it's even a preferable method, because it doesn't require divulging shortcomings or insecurities to another human being.
Sometimes, apps can actually go a step beyond that. Instead of just increasing accountability, they create new opportunities altogether for rewarding it.
This is especially true of apps and auto insurance. Prior to apps, the only predictive aids for gauging how risky a driver would be to insure came from demographics, driver history, and miscellaneous information such as commute distance and vehicle safety rating. Though these bits of information are undeniably useful, they are limited in just how accurate they can be as predictors. In fact, with the exception of driver history, they actually rely on assumptions to assess a driver's risk factors. Young people (males especially) are automatically penalized for being part of a demographic that has historically been more accident-prone and reckless—despite being part of the lowest income bracket.
Computer scientists saw the vagueness in all of this and began working towards a solution: telematics. An interdisciplinary field that brings together communicative technology with vehicles and road safety, telematics has been hailed as the future of insurance—and for good reason. Even in its infancy, it has started to bridge that gap between the risk level drivers appear to have and the risk level they actually possess.
And this assessment is most commonly done through apps. Technology has caught up to the point where it can accurately track driving behaviour, which can then be relayed to insurers and used as justification for discounts to the tune of 25 per cent. As HUB Insurance Hunter has detailed, all sorts of companies are quickly getting into the telematics game. Whether it's insurers like State Farm or Desjardins developing their own apps, or third-party companies like DrivSafe or Digital Matter Telematics Guru entering the market, it's clear that telematics is quickly becoming a competitive field—which can only be considered a good things for consumers, since competition will lead to better pricing and discount offers.