Clevermiles? What is it all about?

wonski

Came across this on Facebook, what's their plan?
Anyone heard anything?

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/item/27335-irish-start-up-clevermiles

http://www.clevermiles.com/


Learners can earn too - they claim on Facebook, but really, can they?

It is irish start-up so i am surprised there was no topic on this yet.

Ronnie Beck

Well Wonski, I'm very cynical, as you know...

You give them money and they give you a voucher for supermacs if you drive slowly. Is that it?

wonski

Ronnie Beck wrote: »

Well Wonski, I'm very cynical, as you know...

You give them money and they give you a voucher for supermacs if you drive slowly. Is that it?

That is what i thought...
So i pay them, they monitor my driving, and give me SOME of my money back if i drive within the limits.
If i don't - they keep it?

If someone paid me to do this, i could think about it (by paid i mean somewhere between 2-5k/year at least)
But who is going to pay for this?
I wish them all the best, but i do not think people will sign up for this.

I am cynical too Ronnie Beck.

Their website is poor, no info, just a sign-up form. I do know these days it is all online, but i wouldn't go there unless i know who they are.
Facebook advertisement is not good enough for me. We will see where they are going with it soon i hope.

_Kaiser_

Seems a bit much alright.. you pay them €30 (generously down from €150) for a "wireless device" - I'm assuming it works over 3G (who is paying for that?) and you get reward points that you can buy coffee and burgers with?

It could be your chance to reduce your insurance costs they say, but nothing on whether any insurers have signed on with this idea.

It's also a 3 month limited trial.. so you're paying them to beta test their idea and work out the inevitable bugs in the system/software/hardware. I'd think they would want to be paying you myself.

Can't see it as a runner to be honest

rainbowtrout

In theory it's great, but in practice very, very expensive. What 17-30 year old has the money for this, particularly at the moment?

So 150 to set up and get the device to stick in car. Then I assume a monthly subscription for uploading data. Can't see how else it would be done. Similar to mobile phone bill.

Even if I did get vouchers for Supermacs etc, first year costs would be 270 (assuming minimum €10 per month subscription).

The thing is, there is an incentive not to speed: penalty points, and while I'm not bragging about speeding, I've got points and that is a far more serious deterrent, yet thousands of people have them. Enough points can lose you your licence. If losing the ability to drive still doesn't deter speeding, will getting a virtual score and a voucher?

So assuming a young driver who is on a provisional gets one of these, and then passes their test, what is the incentive to continue to pay to get a score for each drive that they do?

Also wondered about the 'could get an insurance reduction'. Is this actually the case or still a work in progress? It would want to be fairly clear cut like the old Hibernia Ignition course: pass the ignition assessment and get a 10% reduction on insurance, or something like that. Don't know if this still exists.

What score would you have to get on this system to avail of a reduction, over what period would the score have to be clocked up? Hours driving, miles driven, number of days driving. If first year cost is as outlined above, I'd want to be getting a serious reduction in insurance to make it worth my while.

One other issue: if an insurance company is on board and has access to my driving data for the purposes of giving me a discount for good driving, will they be putting up my premium if they spot that I happen to drive a route regularly that is an accident black spot even if I've never had an accident, i.e. I drive on a high risk road, etc.

Lynchy747

rainbowtrout wrote: »

In theory it's great, but in practice very, very expensive. What 17-30 year old has the money for this, particularly at the moment?

So 150 to set up and get the device to stick in car. Then I assume a monthly subscription for uploading data. Can't see how else it would be done. Similar to mobile phone bill.

Even if I did get vouchers for Supermacs etc, first year costs would be 270 (assuming minimum €10 per month subscription).

The thing is, there is an incentive not to speed: penalty points, and while I'm not bragging about speeding, I've got points and that is a far more serious deterrent, yet thousands of people have them. Enough points can lose you your licence. If losing the ability to drive still doesn't deter speeding, will getting a virtual score and a voucher?

So assuming a young driver who is on a provisional gets one of these, and then passes their test, what is the incentive to continue to pay to get a score for each drive that they do?

Also wondered about the 'could get an insurance reduction'. Is this actually the case or still a work in progress? It would want to be fairly clear cut like the old Hibernia Ignition course: pass the ignition assessment and get a 10% reduction on insurance, or something like that. Don't know if this still exists.

What score would you have to get on this system to avail of a reduction, over what period would the score have to be clocked up? Hours driving, miles driven, number of days driving. If first year cost is as outlined above, I'd want to be getting a serious reduction in insurance to make it worth my while.

One other issue: if an insurance company is on board and has access to my driving data for the purposes of giving me a discount for good driving, will they be putting up my premium if they spot that I happen to drive a route regularly that is an accident black spot even if I've never had an accident, i.e. I drive on a high risk road, etc.

Most of the claims in your post are simply untrue or come without hard evidence. I would like to advise of some findings I made.

I have conducted a quick search through their website (https://clevermiles.zendesk.com/entries/23626432-What-is-the-annual-cost-of-CleverMiles-) to find that the annual cost is €49. This is to cover 3G Data Transmission. This is reasonable given the rewards can be substantial (Quoted €1800 from their website).

Points are limited to 20 per day. And are calculated using a formula, so as a safe driver driving a short distance will not get less than an unsafe driver driving a long distance.

Points are not lost over a time period.

Data collected is your data and will not be shared with anyone else, unless of course, you share it.

From reading about the business, I have found that in developing the company Quinn Direct (T/A Liberty Insurance now) was involved as they have significant datasets built around who crashes etc., the Gardaí's crash investigation unit, and the RSA were also involved.

I am a driver who has just passed the test on the 1st of March this year. I am aware I have a lot to learn but I feel this is a worthwhile investment, and hopefully points out what needs to be improved with my driving.

This wasn't intended to be a rant, more a bit of information. I think it's a great idea personally. I'm in no way affiliated with the company by the way.

somefeen

rainbowtrout wrote: »

One other issue: if an insurance company is on board and has access to my driving data for the purposes of giving me a discount for good driving, will they be putting up my premium if they spot that I happen to drive a route regularly that is an accident black spot even if I've never had an accident, i.e. I drive on a high risk road, etc.

Don't be so silly, of course they will!:mad:

rainbowtrout

Lynchy747 wrote: »

Most of the claims in your post are simply untrue or come without hard evidence. I would like to advise of some findings I made.

I have conducted a quick search through their website (https://clevermiles.zendesk.com/entries/23626432-What-is-the-annual-cost-of-CleverMiles-) to find that the annual cost is €49. This is to cover 3G Data Transmission. This is reasonable given the rewards can be substantial (Quoted €1800 from their website).

Points are limited to 20 per day. And are calculated using a formula, so as a safe driver driving a short distance will not get less than an unsafe driver driving a long distance.

Points are not lost over a time period.

Data collected is your data and will not be shared with anyone else, unless of course, you share it.

From reading about the business, I have found that in developing the company Quinn Direct (T/A Liberty Insurance now) was involved as they have significant datasets built around who crashes etc., the Gardaí's crash investigation unit, and the RSA were also involved.

I am a driver who has just passed the test on the 1st of March this year. I am aware I have a lot to learn but I feel this is a worthwhile investment, and hopefully points out what needs to be improved with my driving.

This wasn't intended to be a rant, more a bit of information. I think it's a great idea personally. I'm in no way affiliated with the company by the way.

And if you have a look you will see that I posted that back in January. At the time CleverMiles were selling their gadget for €149 on their website. They have since dropped the price to €49 but it still states the introductory price is €49, usually €149. Will it go up after your first year?

Also at the time there was no information on their website as to the pricing structure or the rewards structure.


Maximum rewards are €1800, but how realistic is that? How many points will it take to get a €5 for something?

Data collected is your data. Indeed. But does that stop them collating data about trips anonymously, i.e. collate data about trips in a certain part of the country or certain road and selling that on. E.g. Over a six month period all of our drivers that drove on the N2 between Monaghan Town and Castleblayney drove at an average speed of 110km/h????


Not knocking the concept, but the company has to make money. So if €49 covers all data upload costs for the driver over the course of the year, how is the company making money? Considering data upload costs, manufacturing costs for the gadget, web hosting/server costs, employee wages, how far doe €49 go?

Even mobile phone companies have a monthly charge for their services which are of a simliar nature. If you go with a bill phone you are tied into a contract for 12-18 months so they can recoup the cost of the handset. How does the company make money???

Lynchy747

rainbowtrout wrote: »

And if you have a look you will see that I posted that back in January. At the time CleverMiles were selling their gadget for €149 on their website. They have since dropped the price to €49 but it still states the introductory price is €49, usually €149. Will it go up after your first year?

Also at the time there was no information on their website as to the pricing structure or the rewards structure.


Maximum rewards are €1800, but how realistic is that? How many points will it take to get a €5 for something?

Data collected is your data. Indeed. But does that stop them collating data about trips anonymously, i.e. collate data about trips in a certain part of the country or certain road and selling that on. E.g. Over a six month period all of our drivers that drove on the N2 between Monaghan Town and Castleblayney drove at an average speed of 110km/h????


Not knocking the concept, but the company has to make money. So if €49 covers all data upload costs for the driver over the course of the year, how is the company making money? Considering data upload costs, manufacturing costs for the gadget, web hosting/server costs, employee wages, how far doe €49 go?

Even mobile phone companies have a monthly charge for their services which are of a simliar nature. If you go with a bill phone you are tied into a contract for 12-18 months so they can recoup the cost of the handset. How does the company make money???

As far as I can see the initial cost of €149, or €49 for now is a once-off set up fee. Once you pay it that's it. The €49 is a yearly direct debit, so they say.

I doubt they will do this, although that is a fair point, I hadn't thought about this. I think though the idea is to stop this from happening, i.e drivers shouldn't be driving at that speed, and they probably won't if they're being monitored.

Presumably they have added a few quid on to this so they have a margin. As well when the introductory price stops their margin on the device will probably triple. Given the trial ones were being sold for €29.

This isn't as such a contract. You own the device, if you don't pay the data transfer charge, your account is closed. I understand where you are coming from though.

Lynchy747

somefeen wrote: »

Don't be so silly, of course they will!:mad:

Not necessarily, if they say that your data is private unless you agree for it to be shared the chances are it is. If you want a discount for safe driving, and you are driving safely on such roads, you have nothing to worry about if the data is shared (by way of you granting permission for this to happen).

What do you think insurance companies do? They calculate risk, everyone has an equal chance of driving over these types of roads, so that is factored into everyone's premium.