DraVA is a Malaysian insurtech app that is designed as a tool for drivers to improve their driving habits by providing feedback after every trip made.
Back when we spoke to them earlier this year, they mentioned how their app could be useful for driving instructors and driving schools, who could make use of the mentor-mentee section of their app.
The team also brought up a driving school that took them up on the offer; they’ll officially launch their partner app later this month.
SDC Driving Coach App functions primarily to help drivers to improve their driving habits, and they can enlist mentors in their life to watch over them along the way.
Like DraVA, the app logs each trip the driver makes and shows their traffic violations during the trip.
The location of each violation is shown along the route taken on a map, and each individual journey is assigned a safety score, based on the number and severity of the violations. The app can also generate a monthly safely score, as an overall gauge of the driver.
At the moment, the app can only register whether the driver is speeding compared to the speed limit of the road as a violation. The team plan to add other violations to the list, such as phone usage while driving, and also a more comprehensive coverage of driving behaviours other than speeding.
The main target audience they see using the app are parents who want to monitor and coach their children who are new drivers.
After downloading the app, you can register yourself as a mentor or a mentee.
To sign in, simply choose one of your social media accounts to link the app to.
Once registered as a mentor, you get a specific reference key which you can share with your mentee(s). The app runs on the background and after each trip, both the mentee and mentor will get an awareness trip report to show the driving performance of the mentee.
The mentor can also to get real time notifications if a speed limit is violated or if the mentee turns off their phone, GPS or force quits the app.
As someone who isn’t a very confident driver, I wasn’t so sure if I personally would want someone monitoring my driving behaviour.
Mui Han, the CEO and co-founder of DraVA clarified with us, “Once the connection is established, the driver (mentee) can always disable the tracking by the mentor when he or she chooses to.”
As with the DraVA app, if you’re concerned about the authorities getting their hands on the data, once again we the point to the Personal Data Protection Act, which offers protection against third parties from using personal data for any other purpose than what it was meant for as stipulated in the terms and conditions.
The app is currently free-to-use, with an in-app purchase for location, which mentors can use to confirm the mentee’s location on a real time basis.
According to Mui Han, the main idea for SDC Driving Coach App is to work as a complementary tool for all the driving institute students that are learning to drive and preparing for the test.
“We also hope the young drivers will continue to use the app post getting their driving license; at least for the first two years so that they can have a tracking mechanism for themselves to continuously improve their driving.”
Their end goal remains unchanged; as with DraVA, they want to help users to be more mindful of their driving behaviors, leading to safer drivers.
“We believe that safer behavior can be inculcated with the next generation of drivers. This can be achieved if the young drivers can continue to monitor their driving performance while on the road and at the same time have an opportunity to nominate a mentor to provide continuous guidance at least for the first 2 years post getting their driving license,” said Mui Han.
Practically, they hope to develop the app into a subscription-based driving institute student management system.
“We envisioned the app to evolve into the main point of interaction for between the students and our driving institute. Prospective students in the future will be able to register and make payments online, select their driving instructors, schedule the driving classes and many other functions via the app.”
SDC Driving Coach App is currently available in Android Play Store.