Today, Mercury Insurance announced that the company has made its usage-based insurance app, MercuryGO, available to drivers in New Jersey to help improve driving skills and traffic safety. The app acts as a virtual driving coach, providing skill scores that give real-time feedback about driving behavior. Mercury auto insurance policyholders who enroll to use the app immediately receive a 5% participation discount and teen drivers will receive up to a 10% discount. Then, when MercuryGO customers renew their policies, they could receive a discount of up to 40% in addition to their participation discount, depending upon their driving score.
“The benefits of MercuryGO is twofold: The app will help drivers be safer, which contributes to the ultimate goal of reducing fatalities and serious injuries. It will also help drivers save a lot of money on their premiums,” said Mercury Insurance Director of Product Management Mike Dawdy. “All of this practicality will be at your fingertips in our easy-to-use app.”
The New Jersey State Police reports there were 590 motor vehicle traffic fatalities in 2020. Additionally:
- This averages to one person per day on New Jersey roadways.
- Speeding, phone use, hard braking and following too closely are common causes of crashes.
The MercuryGO app generates a driving skill score, which is calculated based on categories that are closely correlated with car crashes: excessive speeding, hard braking, distracted driving (i.e., phone motion and screen interaction), and road type.
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), Mercury’s technology partner, is the world’s largest smartphone telematics provider, winning multiple awards. CMT is the pioneer of: usage-based insurance with smartphones (in 2012); the measurement of phone distraction (2013); behavior-based insurance (2014); and real-time crash alerts with roadside assistance (2015).
“Mercury Insurance is utilizing the DriveWell platform to help drivers reduce distracted driving, speeding, and hard braking by keeping them engaged and providing timely feedback,” said Ryan McMahon, CMT’s Vice President of Insurance and Government Affairs. “MercuryGO will help make New Jersey roads safer and has the potential to reduce the number of car collisions, injuries and fatalities.”
CMT’s research shows that 37% of all car trips in the U.S. in 2019 involved significant driver phone distraction; between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., that figure rises to 41% of all U.S. car trips. MercuryGO will help solve that problem by using technology that has reduced distracted driving by 29%, speeding by 45%, and hard braking by 17%.
MercuryGO provides useful in-app tips to help users become safer drivers. Added benefits include:
- A sharing option for families, which allows all participating drivers to see who is the safest.
- The ability for parents to receive real-time feedback about their teen’s driving behavior, including when, where and how fast they’re traveling.
- Licensed teen drivers, 18 years and younger, who are registered for MercuryGO will instantly receive a 10% participation discount on auto insurance.
- The opportunity to earn up to an additional 40% discount at renewal.
“Most car crashes can be avoided, and MercuryGO is a helpful tool that will keep Garden State drivers safe,” said Dawdy.
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