Allstate Drivewise. A huge failure in potential.

I've been meaning to get this one up for some time. For a short time I had signed up for Allstate's Drivewise program. Driving very few miles as compared to most other drivers and the fact that I don't drive like an idiot, I figured it was safe (nothing to lose). The problem is the data set that they've created their perfect driver rating system around are likely based on their payouts for accidents by type of braking, time of day, mileage, and excessive speed (80+ mph). Okay sounds good so far. I kind of figured this going in.

Overwhelmingly statistics apparently aren't on my side when they're being applied by Allstate.

When you dig into the Drivewise data after receiving your first set of "grades" you'll see 4 nice looking graphics in the interface. One for mileage, one for braking, one for time of day, one for speed in excess of 80mph.

Mileage

They go on to tell you that the mileage is a calculated projection of how many miles they think you'll drive based on your daily driving. If you're sticking to what they expect this shouldn't be a problem. I don't have a problem with mileage from the device because it coincides with the mileage from my odometer (which they already had on file). Spoiler, if you tell them you only drive 7,000 miles a year, and you really drive 50,000 the program will not give you a discount and the agent will have access to your actual mileage and will likely raise your premiums accordingly.

Braking

The braking section of the graphics show two things. "Hard Braking" and "Extreme Braking" are the two categories. According to Drivewise, hard braking is when you decelerate by 8mph in less than 1 second. If you're following a bus that makes frequent stops and you can not change lanes, depending on the bus driver's performance and lack of indication you will have a hard braking event (or two or four), someone walks out in front of you, a dog in the road, you get the idea. Extreme braking is when you decelerate by 10mph in less than 1 second. So if you come up to a short traffic light that has a 3 second yellow (these do exist) from 50mph and begin decelerating, you will likely have an extreme braking event. When you have 4 hard braking events and 1 extreme braking event over the course of 3 weeks this erodes any discount you would expect to receive from the program. I do mean ANY and ALL discounts.

Time of day

The time of day expectations for the program are really optimistic for Allstate. They have 4 categories. They've said that the "Lowest Risk" for accidents is on weekends between 5am and 11pm. The same time that most teens are out driving to work or shopping, etc. The "Low Risk" time is from 4am-12pm on weekdays (When teens are driving to school.). "Moderate Risk" is from 12pm to 11pm on Weekdays (When teens are on their way home from school or on their way to work at night). If you're out past 11pm you are driving at the "High Risk" time which is from 11pm-4am on weekdays and from 11pm-5am on weekends (Drunk people dodging, but luckily most teens are at home curiously enough).

Speed >=80

This one is pretty straight forward however they give a whole range of grading here where you basically stay below 80 or you don't. I don't understand this one at all because if you go above 80 you should be in the very high-risk category for drivers. Go get a racing license and take it out on the track. Now if you're in a state like Florida or Montana where you may encounter a 75mph speed limit, then it's understandable that this may need to be changed, but they're not trying to hide anything from you here.

My Suggestions

If Allstate really wanted their Drivewise program to be highly successful for them and to actually reward people who are definitely driving safely they would look at a different set of parameters.

Speed

Since the device already knows how fast the driver is going, it should be able to tell whether they are one of those people who can't maintain a constant speed. If the driver accelerates extremely rapidly (0-60 in 10 seconds) then they should have a record of drag racing on file. This could be road rage (extremely risky) or someone not paying attention to their lane ending... this might also obviously be drag racing, but the risks are the same. If the driver is running 65 and catches someone doing 45 and does not overtake or switch lanes, then they are not paying attention. Also if they decelerate by this much and maintain the speed it means that they either entered a construction zone, or they slowed down to the flow of traffic. If the device sees people accelerating and decelerating regularly it should know that the person is in a stop and start traffic jam. It already knows the time of day, so if the person is in rush hour stop and start traffic then it should know and place them in a higher risk category (for a low impact collision).

Location vs Speed

The device already has the ability to track vehicle location because it's transmitting on a cellular signal. If Google and most GPS systems can tell how long it will take to get to a destination, the device should be able to do this as well. This means if the driver is speeding and the device knows it, then they are risky and should not receive the discount. Something like 65 in-town in a school zone and they should put the driver into the high-risk category as well (for a high impact collision).

Crazy Driving

Add a couple of accelerometers to the device and now you can actually find the people who are weaving at risky times (drunks) and the people who are weaving on their daily commute (food-eating, texting, doing their make-up, you know... people who are exhibiting risky behavior). Also you can find the people who are insanely driving and weaving in and out of traffic with fast bursts of acceleration. Like the yellow semi truck that didn't like my Chicago Black Hawks tag.

Time of day

The Allstate Drivewise program needs to get a realistic idea of when people drive and when people don't drive in order to be successful. If I'm driving safely at a time of day when there is nobody on the road but me, then I shouldn't be in the high-risk category. If I'm driving when there are fewer people who are on the road like an afternoon after rush hour, I shouldn't be in a moderate risk category. If I'm driving when EVERYONE is off of work at the same time as they are on a Weekend, then I should be in a very high risk category (more people on the road=greater chance of an accident). If I'm driving when people are trying to get to work on time or they're trying to rush home after a bad day at work those are risky times as well.

I think if Allstate had actually taken the time to utilize the system instead of cutting corners, they could actually reward the people who are indeed safe drivers and profit from the people who aren't.

Suggested Upgrades

Add a couple of wireless cameras to the device. Let's put one in the front and in the back. Let's actually get some documentation on why someone is stopping abruptly. Don't outsource the research to a country overseas. Now you can have people in the US work from home and analyze the footage. It would help keep people off of the streets and off of the roads and it would also help with those fender benders that don't get reported. Not to mention auto theft, erratic driving and whether someone's towing a trailer at high speed. Yeah I'm talking about the people in the fast lane running 80mph towing the trailer that's rated for 45mph max.

Make the device aware on its surroundings. Add a hygrometer. Let's see if people are driving in the rain or driving when it's dry. Let's take some barometric pressure readings on the Drivewise device. Zero visibility thunderstorm, do you slow down? They should know. Let's add a thermometer. Driving on ice? The device should know. If you drive excellent on ice, then you should be rewarded. If you're more like a skating star doing twirls, whirls, and 720 degree spins, you should be penalized.

Make it driver aware, add something to the keychain so when a certain driver is in a closer proximity it knows who is driving the car. Sure you could swap keys, but this would definitely help if you had teens driving the car. That way they could tell who was a safe driver and who wasn't. Want the discount back, don't let junior drive your car.

All-in-all I'm 100% positive about making the roads a safer place.

What is the Allstate Drivewise really about?

The Allstate Drivewise device is not out to make the roads safer. In actuality if we look at the device from a completely different approach, it's a now a gimmick that invades the privacy of the driver. Allstate isn't interested in whether someone is a safe driver. They're interested in finding ways to make you pay high premiums. The higher risk they can make you in their book, the better off they are (monetarily). My agent seemed disappointed that I was healthy when applying for Life Insurance... gee, I wonder why that is? The same logic applies to car insurance. If you're a truly bad driver, the system will punish you, but if you're a good driver, then it's up to the insurance company to make up for the loss.

Realistically if we look at the stats from the US National Transportation Safety Board, most people aren't at risk of getting into a major accident on the road statistically. Only the select few. If we can keep those people off of the street, then sign me up. Until then, I'm keeping the Allstate Drivewise out of my vehicle because it makes me think about something when I'm behind the wheel that isn't related to my driving performance at all, and that's whether or not I'm going to be financially penalized about something out of my control. And when they do penalize me for something which is not a risk at all, I appear to them to be an "unsafe" driver, which helps them to justify charging more.

Get Wise Allstate.


A note on the edits
Originally I had mentioned that it might have been up to the device programmers, but that's not really fair. Once a product like this passes enough scrutiny panels in the production phase, good intentions of the designers are left in a pile for the sake of a little bit of savings. As long as the device gives a plausible illusion of savings, then the company will proceed.