![]() Effective driving schools are ones that make it very clear, to both the driver and their parents, that completing and maybe even exceeding the required hours is key to creating safe teen drivers. ![]() Disclaimer: The Murphy family was compensated to share their experience with Verizon.DriveTracker App for a More Effective Driver’s EducationĪ key part of the learner’s permit process is getting the required amount of practice driving hours logged, but tracking these hours can be complicated. The Murphy family will spend the summer with Hum by Verizon, and we’ll follow up with Part 2 in the fall. “That’s when we’re really going to see how good this technology is because I know they’re going to drive a lot differently on a Friday after finals than they are on a Friday in Culpeper, Virginia.” He thinks it will be interesting when the twins go off to college and are driving different places with their friends. And rapid acceleration, sometimes you have to do that type of stuff just to survive.” But when they head to Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., later, you have to drive differently than you do on the roads in Culpeper. “I do like the technology, and I definitely think that it will help build good habits. Steven is already thinking ahead to the fall when the kids will be driving in bigger cities. “I like being able to find the vehicle when I don’t know where the kids are or if I’m concerned-even though Jordan doesn’t like that.” She thinks it will not only help make them better drivers, but help her talk to the kids more about how to be better drivers and to be safer. “I definitely think it’s helpful,” says Sharon. Overall, what should parents know about it? “It really can show you that, okay, I need to slow down now,” he says. Jordan says he’s now thinking twice before accelerating. Now that we have it, it’s really helpful.” ![]() “Before, we weren’t tracking it, so you didn’t really think about it as much. Hum made Brayonna consciously go slower and not accelerate as much, she says. “Which is a good thing-if you accelerate fast or you stop too hard or maybe your turn was too sharp.” He says the safety score is good at what it does, “but it really makes you feel like you’re not that good of a driver sometimes.” Did it change the way the teens drive? Yes. Jordan thought it was useful, but very nitpicky. “I would want to improve in the future, because I do like seeing that I’m at that 100% safety score. “For me and for Jordan,” says Brayonna, “I know he does a lot of hard braking, and I know I do a lot of rapid acceleration.” So she realized where she had work to do. “It gives you a real quick view without having to get into the weeds.” The teens liked being more aware of their driving habits “So it really can bust your kid out if you’re asking, ‘Hey, any problems when you were driving?’ he says. “I hadn’t paid much attention to it,” he says, “but when I opened the app and looked at it, I noticed it dropped a few points, from 100 to 90.” He clicked on the app and it actually showed him why the score dropped: hard braking, speeding, rapid acceleration, and sharp turns. Steven thought the safety score was pretty useful. Research also shows it’s making a difference. That’s why, in recent years, teenage driving monitoring devices like Hum by Verizon have added more features to help develop safer driving habits: Advanced safety measures such as rescue and safety dispatch, notifications when the car needs maintenance, and weekly safety scores are delivered in real time. New research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that when a teen driver has only teen passengers in their vehicle, the fatality rate for all people involved in a crash increases by 51 percent. “Being able to see that immediately, not having to worry about calling them, in case they didn’t pick up the phone-which happens a lot-that was a real plus and real peace of mind.” Can a teenage driving monitoring device improve teen driving? “That’s when I thought, ‘Man, this thing does have some real, practical use,’” Steven says. “They had already left, and I noticed that they were pretty far away from the high school at that point. He opened the Hum by Verizon app, which allows you to monitor a car’s location and other key statuses remotely, and saw that the twins were nowhere near the scene. “As a parent, I was concerned that maybe something had happened with the kids,” Steven says. Out riding with his wife Sharon in their hometown of Culpeper, Virginia, Steven noticed police cars, an ambulance and medevac circling over the school where their 18-year-old twins-Jordan and Brayonna-were playing tennis. But even he was skeptical when he first tried Hum by Verizon with his kids. The solutions architect designs applications in Washington, D.C. Steven Murphy knows a thing or two about apps and safety.
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