Ian Hare, Managing Director of Motor Management writes; I was intrigued to read about Renault’s new Safety Score and Safety Coach technology in The Sunday Times. Right now, this technology is not available but will be launched in a new product later this year. Renault’s press office was not able to advise precisely when it will become available, or on what model, but did tell me that it is now part of the specification offered on some products in France.
The new technology will rate motorists driving score out of 100 at the end of each trip and the deduct marks for bad habits such as tailgating, speeding, not paying attention and poor lane keeping. The scoring system will utilise existing ADAS technology including automated breaking, lane keeping aids, help with reversing, drowsiness warnings and adaptive cruise control. It will take into account how often the system intervened to stop the driver speeding or shunting a vehicle in front.
New European safety regulations just introduced mean that nearly all new cars will be fitted with Intelligent Speed Assistance to alert drivers when they are going faster than the limit and encourage them to slow down. Although the Conservative government decided not to adopt these regulations it is understood that 90% of new cars in Britain will include this feature as standard.
Drivers will be able to choose whether to use the scoring system when they start the car. It will not be possible to turn the technology off permanently. This poses interesting questions for fleet operators as well as company car and van drivers. Should fleet operators insist that drivers utilise the technology and will they ask for driver scores to be returned? Arguably fleets may decide that they have a duty to analyse the data to both improve safety at work and ultimately drive down insurance premiums.
The crux of the debate will revert back to the question which has been asked several times in recent years – who owns the data? Is it the OEM? Is it the fleet operator? Is it the leasing company if a vehicle is on contract hire? Or is it the driver?
Fleet operators will undoubtedly need to consider driver opinion. A survey carried out by Capgemini in 2021 revealed that just 29% of 3000 European drivers surveyed would be willing to share their vehicle data with privacy concerns being the most common reason for this reluctance. There were also concerns about unauthorised data sharing, lack of trust in the company and drivers not being interested in data-based services.
On top of this there is the question for fleet operators as well as drivers regarding OEMs choosing to monetise the data collected and sell it to third parties.
Today there is no legislation providing any clarity on data ownership (the ICO have regulations that cover employees while in their vehicles on comapny business, but further clarification will be required to cover this latest development.) The arguments and opinions on data ownership will be heightened when Safety Score and Safety Coach products are introduced.
Author: Ian Hare, Managing Director of Motor Management
