Automatic Launches “License+” Program To Assist Young Drivers And Their Parents

Learning to drive can be a scary experience for teenagers, and even more so for their parents. Young drivers are not only more likely to make mistakes due to their lack of hours on the road, but their still-developing brains also make them more likely to take risks than their older counterparts.

In an attempt to calm the nerves of parents and help young drivers develop better habits, connected car technology platform Automatic has launched a new program called License+. The program repurposes Automatic’s existing technology and its accompanying mobile app to offer parents a set of tools to encourage and coach their children as they improve upon their driving skills.

Automatic involves an OBD device that plugs into a port on your car, providing communication with your smartphone to log trips, monitor engine health, detect crashes, and track your driving in real-time by offering audio alerts for events such as speeding, rough braking and more. Although there are already many tools available to help parents monitor their children’s driving, Automatic’s system is designed to encourage parents and teenagers to work together to establish trust and safety, as opposed to simply being a parental watchdog.

The new License+ is a 100-hour driving program that includes trip logging as well as feedback and recording of events such as speeding, hard braking and hard accelerations, while calculating an overall driving score. Parents are able to monitor all of these events via a web dashboard to ensure the safety of their kid’s driving. Additionally, young drivers are able to earn badges as they complete specific tasks and master skills, such as driving 10 miles safely at night, or going 50 miles without any hard braking. When the program has been completed, the young drivers earn either a bronze, silver or gold medal in the app.

Although the badges themselves may not be a great incentive for teenagers, parents can certainly adapt them to work well. For example, they could offer their child an additional reward for the successful completion of the program, such as money towards buying their own car, or they could reduce their children’s allowance or increase their chores based on mistakes that are made while driving. The options are only limited by the creativity of the individuals that are utilizing the program as an additional component to teaching their children safe driving habits.

Young drivers can also use all of Automatic’s other existing features, such as the functionality to help you remember where you parked, the capability to decode the “check engine” alerts, and the “crash detection” feature that alerts authorities and family in the event of an emergency. License+ is now available on iPhone, with an Android release scheduled soon.

It’s never easy to teach your kids to drive, but hopefully Automatic’s License+ program will help to reduce the concerns of parents while assisting new drivers in adopting safe habits on the road.