Skip to main content

Aviva looks to iPhone app to cut the cost of motor insurance

Major UK insurance company Aviva is said to be experimenting with an iPhone app that will offer discounts on car insurance based on customer's driving speed and style, according to reports in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
March 19, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Major UK insurance company 4075 Aviva is said to be experimenting with an iPhone app that will offer discounts on car insurance based on customer's driving speed and style, according to reports in the 4076 Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The app will use telematics technology to monitor a driver's behaviour by using data transmitted from a Smartbox, which is fitted to the policyholder's car, via satellite. It will measure motorists' mileage, the time they drive, and how they drive.

Motorists are then penalised for sudden braking or cornering via a black box installed in the dashboard of the car. The concept behind this insurance is simple: by encouraging careful driving, some motorists will see their premiums fall, while those who do not drive as safely will see the cost increase.

Head of Aviva UK, Trevor Matthews, is quoted as telling City AM, "We're experimenting with an app right now that you put in your car and tells you all sorts of things. It could be available later in the year. But clearly there's a bit of a problem with a phone-based app because it might not be in your car."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • FOI request reveals “shocking” amount of uninsured UK drivers
    July 30, 2013
    One in every 100 people in the UK with a full driving licence has points for driving uninsured, according to a “shocking” Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists). For all ages the request, directed to the DVLA, revealed that one in every 200 people with a full UK driving licence had been penalised for driving without insurance. A total of 226,803 drivers in the UK were said under FOI to have points on their licence for driving while uninsured.
  • Sustainable Construction with Topcon
    February 7, 2024
    Michael Gomes, vice president of sustainability and corporate social responsibility at Topcon, talks to Mike Woof, editor of World Highways magazine, about the use of technology to deliver sustainability in road construction.
  • Smombies! Look out!
    February 12, 2021
    Our city streets are being invaded by smartphone zombies, but help is on the way
  • EAPA’s 10th Symposium: sustainability and communication issues
    July 19, 2017
    Sustainability and the highways sector’s image issue were two major themes at the 10th symposium of the European Asphalt Paving Association in Paris. Margo Cole reports. Sustainability was explicit or implicit in many presentations during EAPA’s biennial symposium for the paving supply chain. The industry feels that sustainability is its home territory, thanks to an already good – and getting even better - record of recycling of materials. But do buyers and users of roads realise that the design and contrac