posted on the Google app store website<\/a> so far have been critical and have led to apologies from Motability and suggestions to contact its Drive Smart team with their concerns.<\/p>\nMotability describes the system as \u201ca simple way to encourage mindful driving and make the roads safer for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n
But one driver said the app was \u201cworse than having spyware on your phone\u201d and that he had \u201chad computer viruses that are less intrusive\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another customer said the app had apparently tracked her location rather than her car\u2019s, as it recorded a five-mile journey when she was a passenger in another car, while her own car was parked outside her home.<\/p>\n
Several reviewers said the experience of using the app had increased their stress or anxiety levels.<\/p>\n
Others accused the app of being unpredictable in how it scored driving behaviour, of only recording some of their journeys, and of draining their mobile phone\u2019s battery, while some raised concerns about how their data was being used by Motability.<\/p>\n
Other reviewers described the app as \u201ca joke\u201d, \u201catrocious\u201d, \u201cintrusive\u201d, \u201crubbish\u201d, \u201cincredibly inconsistent\u201d, and a \u201chuge invasion of privacy\u201d, while many reviews reported problems in setting up their Drive Smart account.<\/p>\n
Users said they had been reported as speeding when they were stuck in a traffic jam, or for using their phone while driving when it rang even though they had not answered it.<\/p>\n
One said the app \u201cwill make you dread every journey you go on as it will mark you down at every little road event that happens, even if something happens out of your control\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another reviewer said: \u201cEven when I\u2019ve turned the car off and then sit and look at my phone it counts it as distracted driving!\u201d<\/p>\n
One driver said they had stopped at a drive-through coffee shop to pay and had been marked down for using their phone to pay for their purchase.<\/p>\n
An older woman who had been too unwell to install the app said she received an email from Motability to warn her that her car would be taken away from her if she did not install it that day.<\/p>\n
And another user said Motability was \u201csending threatening texts to me to install this app\u201d even though they had told them their phone was not compatible with the app.<\/p>\n
Motability said in one response to a review that the app had been \u201cdesigned to encourage mindful driving and help make roads safer for everyone\u201d, and that it only used the \u201cdata required to assess driving safety and for legal purposes\u201d, while it was \u201ccontinually improving the app\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another Motability response said the app\u2019s scoring system was \u201cdata-led and well established\u201d and that it was \u201ccontinually working to improve it so it\u2019s as accurate and reflective of driving safety as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also said its supplier was \u201ccontinually refining the algorithm to keep scores as accurate and fair as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Motability Operations spokesperson told DNS this week that Drive Smart had been introduced in response to an increase in insurance claims and \u201cfocuses on how someone actually drives, rather than relying on indirect measures of risk like postcodes\u201d and would \u201csupport and reward safer driving\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said early data\u00a0suggested that customers using Drive Smart were\u00a0having\u00a018 per cent fewer accidents.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0listening closely to what our customers are telling us\u00a0as we continue to review and refine how Drive Smart works.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn particular, we\u00a0know usage is one of the biggest areas of feedback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are actively reviewing how it is reflected in scores\u00a0to help reduce\u00a0some of the concerns customers are feeling.<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh usage will not\u00a0impact\u00a0a lease,\u00a0because\u00a0we\u00a0know\u00a0how important\u00a0the\u00a0scheme is\u00a0for\u00a0supporting\u00a0customers\u00a0with freedom and independence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also recognise that many of our customers have different driving\u00a0needs, including those who use adaptations,\u00a0and we are\u00a0developing\u00a0the model to\u00a0better reflect this.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs part of this, we\u00a0are building the first\u00a0driving score\u00a0derived from\u00a0real world\u00a0data from\u00a0cars with adaptations, helping to\u00a0strengthen fairness and\u00a0creating\u00a0an\u00a0opportunity\u00a0to work with\u00a0customers\u00a0to\u00a0identify\u00a0potential\u00a0improvements to\u00a0their\u00a0adaptations.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the company was reviewing its Drive Smart data to \u201cunderstand whether any patterns could be attributed to disability, such as adapted cars, which could result in a reasonable adjustment for those customers\u201d.<\/p>\n
She encouraged any customers with concerns about their scores to contact Motability Operations.<\/p>\n
And she said that journey data was recorded via a Bluetooth device in the vehicle and was \u201conly shared at the end of a trip to calculate a driving score\u201d, while \u201cno\u00a0additional\u00a0data is taken from the customer\u2019s\u00a0phone\u00a0and data is only used for scoring\u00a0driving characteristics\u00a0to assess the likelihood of an accident\u201d.<\/p>\n
*Motability Foundation, the charity that oversees the Motability scheme, is a Disability News Service subscriber<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An \u201cabsolutely awful\u201d mobile phone app that helps the Motability scheme monitor the driving behaviour of increasing numbers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[342,111,139,69,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-385617","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}