Volvo Cars has introduced a new optional app called Safety Coach, designed to help drivers improve their driving habits while potentially lowering insurance costs. The app launches first in Sweden and Norway this month, with plans to expand to the United States and additional European markets later.
Safety Coach provides real-time feedback and coaching tips through Volvo’s infotainment screen and the Volvo mobile app. It assesses driving behaviour such as braking, acceleration and cornering, then generates a dynamic personal score intended to reflect how safely a driver is operating day-to-day. Volvo says the guidance is based on safety research accumulated over decades.
A key feature of the rollout is its connection to usage-based insurance. In Sweden and Norway, Volvo customers who choose to share their driving data can access a usage-based offer from insurer Volvia. Volvo says similar insurance-linked benefits are planned as Safety Coach expands to other markets.
The technology behind the app comes from a collaboration with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), a telematics and AI company. CMT supplies the scoring algorithm that calculates each Safety Coach score, and says its safe-driving programmes typically reduce behaviours such as speeding and hard braking.
Safety Coach will be available initially on Volvo models equipped with Google Android-based infotainment from model year 2020 onwards, covering vehicles across the range from the XC40 to the EX90 and ES90.
Volvo also framed the app around accident prevention, saying many crashes involve “surprise,” and that predictability can help prevent incidents. Mikael Ljung Aust, Volvo’s driver behaviour expert, said the app’s goal is to support expected driving behaviour—such as staying within typical speed ranges and avoiding abrupt manoeuvres—so other road users can anticipate a driver’s actions more easily.
CMT’s co-founder and chief executive, William V. Powers, added that the programme is intended to encourage lasting habits and that drivers can be “rewarded with personalised insurance benefits.”
Volvo says Safety Coach is built with privacy and transparency in mind. Drivers must opt in to use the app, and can separately opt in to share data with affiliated insurance companies in exchange for potential usage-based premium offers.
