The Insurance Corp. of B.C. is looking for drivers with limited experience for a to see if technology can make them better behind the wheel.
Driving/Pexels
As many as 7,000 drivers with less than four years鈥� experience are being sought for the $3.4-million project, which gets underway in November. New drivers are 3.5 times more likely to get into a crash than experienced drivers, and their crashes tend to be more serious, ICBC said.
Each participant in the pilot project gets a tag that sticks to the windshield and communicates with a phone app, said Mark Milner, a road-safety program manager for ICBC.
Together, they measure a driver鈥檚 speed, braking, cornering, accelerating and other variables to determine whether they鈥檙e within acceptable limits, Milner said. It also tracks their phone use while they鈥檙e driving and gives them an overall score.
The system can provide updates after every trip, he said, and scoring gets more subtle as time goes on. 鈥淯sually, within the first month or so, it鈥檚 probably going to move more than it does later in the pilot.
鈥淎s time goes on, it doesn鈥檛 move as much, kind of like a batting average in baseball.鈥�
None of the information gathered will be used against the drivers, he said.
鈥淓ssentially, what we want to do is provide drivers with feedback to see if that improves their driving behaviours and makes them less likely to crash,鈥� Milner said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to reward people for good behaviour.鈥�
Participants will be divided into two groups. One will receive the score on a regular basis, for each trip, along with tips and video coaching, said Milner, calling it 鈥渒ind of like having a personal trainer for your car.鈥�
Members of the other group will only get a score at the end of the year.
The idea is to see if the two groups differ, he said. 鈥淎nd also, how does just having the technology make a difference? So we鈥檒l look at both of these groups and compare them with similar drivers who aren鈥檛 part of the pilot.鈥�
Milner said the technology could ultimately save money for ICBC and benefit customers.
鈥淭he fewer the crashes, the fewer the claims, and fewer claims mean that we don鈥檛 have to pay out as much,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd that means that we don鈥檛 have to have drivers provide us with as much in the way of premiums.
鈥淪o in a way, it will be good for everyone.鈥�
Milner said many insurance companies in Canada, the United States and Europe use similar technology to encourage good driving.
They might offer the app to people who can then be given discounts for good driving.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how this kind of technology is frequently used.鈥�
