New Safety Coach app helps Volvo drivers build safer habits and lower insurance rates

Imagine being empowered to drive more safely while lowering your car insurance premium at the same time. This is the concept behind Safety Coach, a new app that Volvo Cars is introducing this month. 

The optional app will provide drivers with real-time driving insights and tips directly through the infotainment screen and the Volvo Cars mobile app. These tips are based on the driver’s behaviour in daily traffic, such as braking, acceleration and cornering.  

The tips are guided by findings from Volvo Cars' unrivalled, decades-worth of real-world safety knowledge and data. Each Volvo driver will receive their own dynamic and personal Safety Coach score, encouraging them to become an even better and safer driver.  

“Our research shows that many accidents involve some form of surprise. What helps prevent that is predictability,” says Mikael Ljung Aust, driver behaviour expert at Volvo Cars. “Staying within expected speed ranges and avoiding abrupt manoeuvres makes your driving easier for others to anticipate and reduces the risk of a collision. Supporting safe driver behaviours is a key piece of the puzzle we need to solve to reach zero collisions, and tools like Safety Coach can help turn these insights into safer everyday habits.” 

First coming to Sweden and Norway 
Starting in Sweden and Norway, drivers of most Volvo cars from model year 2020 can soon download the in-car app. In addition, Volvo Cars customers in Sweden and Norway will soon be able to make use of a special usage-based offer from insurance firm Volvia if they choose to share their driving data. This opens up the potential for more rewards for safer driving. 

Following the introduction in Sweden and Norway, the Safety Coach app is soon set to be introduced in the United States and other European markets. Insurance-related offers are also planned as part of this roll-out. 

The Safety Coach app is the result of a collaboration between Volvo Cars and Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics and AI company for safer mobility, using CMT’s algorithm to create each Safety Coach score. 

"Insights from CMT’s safe driving programmes show that when people engage in safe driving programmes like Safety Coach, the frequency of speeding events and hard braking typically are significantly reduced," says William V. Powers, Co-Founder and CEO of CMT. "This is the kind of behaviour change Volvo customers can use to build safer habits over time, and be rewarded with personalised insurance benefits.”  

The app is designed with privacy and transparency at its core, enabling drivers to manage their own data. Drivers can first choose to opt in to use Safety Coach and can subsequently choose to opt in again to have their data shared with affiliated insurance companies in return for usage-based insurance premiums. 

The small print 

• Volvo Cars Safety Coach is being rolled out starting in Sweden and Norway to the following models with a Google android-based infotainment system from model year 2020 and onwards: XC40, EX40, C40 Recharge, S60, V60, XC60, EX60, XC90, V90, and EX90. Timing of availability may vary depending on car model and markets.