- MyDrive to produce first ever “safe” driver profile for direct comparison to real driver data
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has signed an exclusive agreement with insurance telematics specialist, MyDrive Solutions - www.mydrivesolutions.com. The agreement will provide MyDrive with unprecedented access to a fleet of RoSPA qualified advanced drivers. This means that, for the first time ever, an insurance telematics provider will not only be able to record the driving behaviour data of its customers but will be able to compare this to the profile of an advanced driver, developed using the data collected from the RoSPA advanced drivers.
RoSPA’s Head of Driver Training, Rick Wood, and his team have worked alongside the MyDrive software engineering team to certify the correct indicators to determine true driver capability. MyDrive has installed its Dynamic Drive Recorder into the vehicles of RoSPA advanced drivers which collect second-by-second driver analysis information. This data will be used, on an ongoing basis, to assess all the drivers who use the MyDrive technology against a robust, credible and objective benchmark.
The algorithm will be used to provide insurers with an accurate driver profile that will allow them to price premiums based on an accurate level of risk rather than the previous ‘proxies’ of age, gender, marital status, postcode, etc. that has seen insurance premiums, especially amongst young drivers, rise to levels that could easily price drivers out of owning a car. Furthermore, the driver profile also provides a distinct differentiation from the exception reporting (e.g. harsh braking, speeding etc.) that many of the current telematics companies provide. The MyDrive solution allows insurers to price risk in an extremely accurate and granular way.
Commenting on the new partnership Linden Holliday, CEO of MyDrive Solutions, said, “This exclusive deal provides MyDrive with a real competitive edge as we have access to a depth of driver behaviour knowledge and data from the objective viewpoint of an advanced driving institution. In building our capability, we were conscious that we had to have a credible, objective benchmark against which we could measure driver capability. After all, this measurement and conclusion will have a direct impact on the premiums drivers pay for their insurance and we were keen to ensure that our detailed assessments were of the highest quality. RoSPA has invested a great deal of time and energy to assist MyDrive with the development of our algorithm, our benchmark profiles and in helping us to understand and record what constitutes good driving.”
Frances Richardson, RoSPA’s Operations Director, said, “With help, most people can improve their driving, and given the information on where they are falling short of safer driving, coupled with the incentive of a dramatically lower insurance premium, people can adapt their style with the benefit of reducing the accident rate. For too long, the insurance industry has had no real data to help them differentiate premium levels on the basis of safer driving skill. The partnership with MyDrive will remedy this and help us at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to fulfil our mission of saving lives and reducing injuries.”
Holliday concludes, “The key to this is the understanding of driver behaviour – not the data per se. It is imperative to collect large amounts of data, indeed we log data on a second-by-second basis, but more critical is what is done with that data to derive real knowledge which has value to both a driver and an insurer.” Holliday continues, “Now that we have this knowledge, provided by RoSPA, we can demonstrate that our safer driving standard is not just based on our opinion as a business, but on the opinion of the most highly regarded advanced driving institution in the UK.”
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