How much of your privacy would you be willing to sacrifice in order to save money? A little? A lot? How about we ask you to carry around an app which monitors all your driving habits every day, and if you succeed in meeting our criteria for ‘safe’, we’ll reduce your insurance premiums? Sound interesting?

The Drivology program from insurance giant AXA is offering motorists just that kind of deal. The idea is you download an iPhone or Android app onto your phone, which automatically monitors how well or badly you drive, including things like sticking to the speed limit, how smoothly you accelerate and brake, and how consistently you can keep it up.

The app will monitor your performance every time you drive your car using the autostart feature, and it uses GPS to do most of the monitoring (along with things like your phone’s accelerometer we’re assuming), and it will also log your individual journey’s to see whether you used the optimum roads for safety purposes. The app will also give you feedback on your driving skills, and give you quarterly estimates of your likely upcoming premium based on your score so far.

We’re already a bit creeped out by the whole idea, especially when you realize that you will get 3 monthly ‘assessments’ to see whether your premium should be reduced or increased. And if you don’t log your journeys you’re likely to be kicked off the system, which will affect your premiums anyway. As if that wasn’t enough, when you join you’ll need to photograph and upload to their servers your driving license, your car’s log book, your car (with reg plate visible) and your odometer with mileage reading. What could possibly go wrong with that, we ask.

So, bottom line, if you’re interested in having a friendly, trustworthy Big Brother looking over your shoulder every time you step into the car, to make sure you’re staying in the speed limit and not taking corners a little too fast, then this is definitely an insurance plan you’ll love. Otherwise you may want to stick to your current provider and relax.

[Quick note: if you are someone who works night shifts, your premium will go up/be higher. This is because, according to the company’s FAQ, ‘Night time driving between 11pm and 5am is proven to be more dangerous than other times…’]

https://youtu.be/p8yP6HkK-uE