USAA SafePilot 12+

I still get a discount on my policy but I have to frequently go into the app to manually change the settings to state that I was not a driver during certain trips. If I use my phone while being in an Uber I get dinged for that. But the most surprising thing is that I get dinged for using my phone while flying a plane. I fly single engine small aircraft and the app interprets that as drives. It’s fun to watch the tracker to see where I was flying, but it’s quite surprising that the app thinks I’m driving over fields at 150mph lol. It’s a quick fix to adjust the trip as “not a drive” but sometimes I forget to do so and I’m worried that it would count against me for my auto policy discount. Overall not a bad concept or app, but there are certain instances where I clearly was not driving and the app continues to think I am. I used to work as a paramedic, and I can also see issues for people who MUST use their phones will driving for work. Such as police or EMS. For jobs like that, of course you are going to have some harsh braking or acceleration. It would be nice to see a “work mode” for first responders so how they drive while on the job doesn’t affect their personal auto insurance.

Overall, the app is great with a few significant issues. Other than harsh braking, phone handling, and phone use, the score is arbitrary to the driver as there is no apparent or disclosed reasons for point deductions. The algorithm is not provided. For example, if I take a short drive at or just under the speed limit, take turns at moderate normal safe speed, and drive otherwise perfectly, don’t touch my phone, etc the app will deduct one or two points for undisclosed reasons, so there is no way for a driver to improve without reasonable feedback. Often, when I drive to get gas or stop to drop off something or pull over to
make a call in a parking lot (engine off, Apple ios driver focus off), the app counts going to and returning from the gas station or parking lot as a single drive even though I was stopped for about 5 minutes with the engine off - just using my phone attached wallet seems to trigger point deductions when stopped. After almost two months of driving, I’m still waiting for a discount, again without specific feedback of when the discount is awarded (how many miles, hours, days, etc). As a result, the app is frustrating due to lack of accurate scoring and limited feedback. I wrote the review hopeful that USAA will pay attention and fix the issues. It’s a great app, just needs maturity and more disclosure and feedback regarding scoring.

Update: I now have 7 harsh braking. How???? There has been no harsh braking in weeks. This app cheats and lies!

I’m giving this a two star only. I like the concept, however, it doesn’t take into account when someone pulls in front of me and forces me to put on my brakes. Nor does does it take into account that my cruise control sometimes will break because someone pulls in front of me. My cruise control is the advanced kind that senses when a car is ahead of me. I have it set up to allow at least three car lanes ahead of me if any car moves in between that or if I get close to another car, it slows down to keep that three car length minimum in between. however some people are stupid and just jump in that distance and wind up cutting me off/or causing the cruise control to break harshly. I’m not complaining about the cruise control. It does a good job sensing other cars, but the app thinks that I am being careless when I’m not. I also noticed something else. I got 10 points taken off one day when I had zero infractions, no harsh breaking, no phone use, etc., so I called USAA to find out what’s going on. Turns out, distance can be a problem. The further I drive, the more I get points taken off. Now anybody who lives in Texas, like I do, knows that we’re spread out & nothing is close by. So I’m being penalized for driving the distance that is normal in Texas. I’m not sure this app is worth it.