Steer Clear‪®‬ 12+

Good practical information

The driving portion of this app is sensitive. I can imagine it is difficult to make a perfect driving companion app without an external device. Thankfully it is not counted towards your discount, and is just for your reference so it doesn’t irritate me much.

I really do like the modules. They’re very quick and give practical information that you tend to only pick up yourself after driving for a year or so. I really hate that they have such good material but the quiz portion is lacking. Sometimes the topics of questions aren’t brought up in the video at all. Also silly things, like testing on terminology like “head check”. Call it a “head check” or a “shoulder check” doesn’t matter, just do it.

I liked the upbeat music, and I thought it was amusing how the voiceover says “periphefial”. Can’t complain. Really solid app, material, and graphics.

You guys have better UX than most company apps so cheers! (or not, drive safe)

Good idea, very poor execution.

I’ve been told by many people that I am one of the safest drivers they know. I was taught by my mother who has never had any sort of traffic incident on her record in her 33 years of driving. This app is a wonderful idea to ensure people are driving safely, but it is not executed well at all. The app is much too sensitive. To get anywhere near 100% on acceleration and braking scores, you have to drive like you’re afraid of the pedals. To “safely” accelerate, you have to pull off so slow that people are coming through the back window! To “safely” brake, you have to start braking WAY too early, and it just makes the people behind you mad. I’m convinced that this app isn’t to make me a safer driver; this is an app to make me a danger to those around me and to myself. State Farm I hope you really read this. Driving slower than the rest of traffic isn’t safe. I tested this app driving normally, and it gave me a 50% driving score. This is intriguing because on my Drive Safe and Save app, which is also owned by State Farm, that same drive was rated at 5 stars. Perfect score. It’s also annoying and tedious that I have to manually start and stop drives in the Steer Clear app when I don’t for Drive Safe and Save.

Developer Response ,

Hello,

Thank you for your feedback. We are aware of some of the concerns you have mentioned and we are currently looking to enhance the driving feedback experience for Steer Clear. Since we utilize the mobile device only to score trips we are somewhat limited with how we score. Drive Safe and Save utilizes a beacon and scores trips based off of driving speeds which we do not consider when scoring. We are evaluating new technologies to get more accurate readings for scores in the future while still only utilizing the mobile device for the best experience.

Good idea, bad execution

In theory, I’d love this app. Tips for driving? Tracking and giving feedback on your driving? Sounds great! However, this app underperforms at both of these roles.

Firstly, the lessons. The mandatory lessons you go through are extremely basic, and they the quiz portions have questions that weren’t even covered. Additionally, some of the “right answers” are the polar opposite of what they teach in driver education classes.

Second is the feedback on driving. I consistently scored well on the acceleration and turning categories, but my braking was between 50-70% of what the app said a good score could be. I made sure to brake carefully and softly, but it was impossible for me to get a higher score without being a traffic hazard due to slowing down twice as far as other people. Also, while I usually did well on the acceleration category, when I took routes with higher speed limits, it would drastically lower my score due to accelerating “too fast.” However, if I didn’t accelerate fast enough on these busy roads, I would be hit by the cars I had to merge in front of. Finally, your phone has to be in a stable position for the whole trip. Don’t have a phone stand? You’re out of luck.

In conclusion, this app is not a good resource for any drivers. The only reason I used it after learning about its issues was because it was mandated for a better insurance rate. This app will only teach beginner drivers bad habits that will endanger themselves and others.