Drive Safe & Save™

While I can certainly understand the issue some may have with the new ways of the “grading” with the update there are many more positives that outweigh the minor issues. I am a big fan of the fact that I will be able to easily track my mileage on business related trips when it comes time to do my taxes again as I spend a lot of miles on the road with my profession. The idea of my grade being hurt by using my phone while driving has helped reverse what was once a bad habit of mine. With that being said, it is unfortunate that I can be punished for phone use when my significant other is using the phone to find music, etc. Overall, I am very pleased with the upgrade and look forward to seeing the smaller improvements to come. One suggestion would be giving the user the option to either label a trip after it has been recorded or choose the nature of the trip before it starts such as “work related” to help with the tracking of total miles for those of us who use our business miles for tax deduction purposes.

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.

ask user to change the rating

It is encouraged to have all your vehicles on drive safe and save and the discount follows the car but when I am looking at my trips I have no idea which car they go with. Since the discount and driving is based on the car please only show the trips for that car and which person it recorded. I don’t like how it is all mixed when you have 3 drivers and you don’t know who it is rating! Additionally because all three drivers have the app on their phone, when I added another vehicle the agent must have ordered the beacon on the new vehicle for me, which is fine, but no where on the app does it say it was ordered and when. Finally I called the tech support number and the voice prompts didn’t come on twice, it disconnected me a third time and I selected to do the survey but after the call I sat silent for 1 min waiting for the survey and eventually hung up. To be fair the tech support that answered the phone was super personable. Finally it always wants me to update my odometer when I click on it, my agent said you will get a notification when you open it and need to update but why can’t you just tell me when I look at it. I’m trying to manage three cars with it and can’t remember when I did what. Finally, tell me exactly how to get the best discount !!that’s why I got the Drive Safe and Save not for you to say here is what we track but not all of it applies...... you have to guess!

The other day I went to pick up a pizza I had ordered on the net. On arriving at the address I ordered it at I found it had moved. I drive off to a quiet side street and pulled over to the side of the street and stopped. I pulled put my phone and hit the phone number and the call we placed through my overhead Bluetooth speaker. I put my phone away and continued my call through my Bluetooth to find the New address. After they told me where they were I pulled away. On getting home I found I lost 7 points off my score. The app doesn't even check to see whether you're moving while making a call. On another occasion I pulled off the 60 mph interstate to an off ramp where there was a 25mph speed sign almost immediately on getting on ramp. I slowed down so when I got to sign I was at 25mph and they took off for braking. Also I've noticed if you're not careful on very sharp rounded turns you will get nailed for braking or acceleration. GPS isn't accurate enough on such a turn to measure total distance. On a straight line the distance might be 20 to 25 feet but with the turn is more like 80 to 90 feet so the GPS thinks you are braking to fast in a short distance or are accelerating too fast in a short distance.

response required

This whole thing is so absurd and ridiculous. This thing penalizes you when using your maps, forget letting your kid use your phone when driving you’ll get penalized for phone use whenever you’re not using your phone. I can do 35 every where I go and it will have random spots that I know the posted speed limit is 45 and I’m supposedly speeding. If you let someone else drive you get penalized because of their driving errors. Seriously left my phone in my pocket and got a 1 star for phone use. Good idea terrible technology. All to save 15 to twenty bucks. No real incentive to invite this technology that clearly has no idea about human interaction. Oh yeah don’t avoid an accident by slowing down to quick because some doofus pulls out in front of you, you’ll get deducted points for braking too hard...it’s like they’d rather you cream the imbecile instead of driving defensively. The only positive reviews are from people that work for State Farm which in itself should be illegal. I have near perfect driving record and still have a good score in the app but the benefits do not outweigh the cost of downloading this app. Wouldnt be so bad if the phone penalty actually was from negligent use of a phone while driving. But it’s not. It’s anytime the phone moves around in your pocket or falls in the floor guess what phone usage, that’s a penalty! Now your score suffers.