Welsh university helps develop app which could help young drivers cut their insurance costs

The University of South Wales has helped develop an app which could help young drivers slash the costs of motor insurance by proving they are safe on the roads.

The app has been designed alongside a Cardiff based insurance provider and uses AI technology to monitor real-world driving conditions and accident data, along with driver and vehicle profiling.

Once the system has been developed further, its designers are hoping it could help reduce the cost of previously pricey motor insurance for younger drivers.

Working with the USW-based Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Emerging Technology, Driverly Insurance has developed the app as part of the company’s mission to deliver safer UK roads whilst rewarding good driving behaviours.

The Driverly app monitors and records dozens of different driving criteria for users to build an accurate picture of their driving habits, which can directly benefit them financially.

Accident profiling

After initially monitoring an individual’s driving, Driverly has now added further layers to its tech offering, thanks to the specialists at CEMET.

As well as recording driving behaviour, the enhanced app can also draw on accident profiling of all the major roads in the UK, combined with real-time weather forecasts to build an AI-powered view of real-world driving conditions.

Nestor Alonso, Chief Data Officer at Driverly, worked closely with the CEMET experts on the development.

He said: “Having already designed and built the app, Driverly approached CEMET to take it to the next level. CEMET has added a separate layer around users’ driving context: the road conditions and the weather conditions – which has never been done before in the insurance industry with an app.

“With these added layers, we will be able to offer the most advanced real-time risk analysis of young drivers, thereby offering them insurance premiums that really do reflect their driving habits and – crucially – their driving environments.

“This is great news for young drivers, and great news for the insurance industry. We are taking a lot of the guesswork out of insuring younger drivers who traditionally struggle to find competitively priced insurance policies.’

For the CEMET specialists, working on Driverly’s project provided new challenges to their expertise.

“The Driverly project was really interesting and it’s nice to engage with a company that’s pushing the boundaries,” said Seamus Ballard-Smith at CEMET.

“The project itself was conceptually straightforward but came with several technical challenges. Combining data from multiple sources into a single platform requires time to finesse all the disparate data into a single database, and then developing risk calculation algorithms, was great fun.”