Volvo Launches Safety Coach App With Insurance Benefits in Sweden, Norway

Volvo Cars, which has pushed safety as a major selling point for decades, has launched a new app aimed at giving drivers real-time feedback and safety tips. First available in Sweden and Norway, availability in other markets across Europe and the United States is likely to follow soon. While the company states that the app is completely optional and that data it gathers will remain private, a tie-up with insurance firm Volvia means that owners will get benefits if they choose to use it and share their data.  

The app will show drivers real-time, personalised insights and tips based on their driving style and behaviour, including acceleration, braking and cornering. Information is shown on the car’s infotainment screen and through the Volvo Cars smartphone app.

Volvo says it has used its own real-world data, collected over decades, to develop the app in collaboration with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), a telematics and AI company that focuses on safer mobility.

Drivers will see an algorithmic personal Safety Coach score, which gamifies the experience and gives them targets to work towards, in the process teaching them how to drive more safely.

The app is only available in Sweden and Norway for now. It is compatible with the XC40, EX40, EC40, S60, V60, XC60, EX60, XC90, V90, EX90 and ES90 from model year 2020 onwards, if they are running the Google Android-based infotainment systems.

Volvo has not yet announced details of the Volvia insurance benefit or which firms it might partner with in other markets. Users will have to explicitly opt in once to use the app, and again to share their data, if they choose to.

In a press statement, Mikael Ljung Aust, a driver behaviour expert at Volvo Cars, said “Our research shows that many accidents involve some form of surprise. What helps prevent that is predictability. 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.”

"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," said 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.”