Drive Safe & Save‪™‬ 4+

Battery Usage

I enjoy that you’re able to see the specifics as to how they rate your driving & how they show you on the map where certain things happened if you get “dinged” with speeding/hard braking/phone usage, etc.
One problem I’ve noticed, living in an area where some spots can have a lot of deer, if I brake due to a deer running across the road (which you’d think would be the safe option), I end up getting a lower driving score for hard braking & it tells me to keep a safe distance from the car ahead of me.. except it was for a deer, not me following too closely.
Also, not too thrilled that it marks you down for using navigation apps, as I use my phone for gps sometimes. Even to skip songs or have someone else use your phone for you, it marks you down. I know it says the phone usage doesn’t effect the discount, however, it lowers your overall driving score which does effect the discount.
Another issue I’ve ran into now that I have to have my location services on all the time along with Bluetooth, I’ve noticed that my battery is dying so fast!! I used to get away with not even charging my phone at night sometimes because the battery would still be high enough from the previous nights charge & now I’m having to recharge my phone at least twice a day - it’s really kind of inconvenient. If I charge my phone while I drive (suggested by State Farm), then I can’t listen to music, as it uses the same plug in area on my phone.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the feedback! Our app will use more of your battery than other apps, especially during a trip. The battery usage is similar to navigation apps because we use both GPS and Bluetooth services during the trip. One way to reduce the battery usage is to plug in your phone while you drive.

Good App but can use some improvement

I like the app but I would like to see some improvements. The app has improved my driving habits and has made me more self aware of what I need to continue to work on. No drover is perfect and every driver is going to make a mistakes at some point. Using this app has got me to set a goal to be a top 98% driver. Some my suggestions for improving the app would be to allow feedback on the events that happens. For example, there is a a turn I make on a corner that is sharp. This is just a bad planned out intersection that I have no control over. I took the turn from a complete red light stop but I still received a turning event because of the design of the intersection. Another example should be to notate a hard break. I was cut out by a driver make an unsafe left hand turn. If I wouldn’t have braked hard I would have been in an accident. I’ve also had a dog run into the street. Some thing are just outside of the control of drivers so being able to make suggestions on intersections or a justifying an event would be nice. I know some people would try to justify every event some place a maximum on those justifications to a maximum. Like one per week.

Like the discount; hate the app

Just having this app and beacon gives me a discount, which I appreciate. There is no driving bad enough to not qualify for at least some kind of discount, according to the FAQs. However, seeing that discounts could go into an upper range of 30% to 50%, I feel like I’m getting robbed when the app keeps flagging me for “events” beyond my control.
On the first day of having the beacon, I was flagged for speeding when I KNOW I wasn’t. This has only happened once, but still it aggravated me.
More frustrating is the “phone use” event. When my wife and I are in a car together, it’s usually me driving. But her phone connects to the beacon before mine can, for some reason. So she either has to remember to toggle her Bluetooth on and off, or not use her phone while being a passenger. We’ve been dinged on this issue a bunch. But it’s not the worst….
The “hard braking”……. Really, State Farm??? “Drive Safe and…..” get flagged for an “event”!!!!! This event, from my understanding, exists in order to encourage the driver to not follow to closely. I’m constantly keeping a 3-4 second space between me and the vehicle ahead of me. But I get flagged for hard braking when I AM driving safe—changing stop lights, people pulling out in front of me, etc. And it’s infuriating!
I know I’m already getting a discount, but this kind of stuff keeps me from getting an even better discount, even though I do “Drive Safe” like the program states.