Best Apps & Devices to Monitor Teen Drivers

I’ve partnered with insuranceQuotes.com to share the best mobile apps to monitor your teen’s driving –

Your teen has finally hit the driving age.

Before you add him to your auto insurance policy, know the effect it will have: Your premium may soar because teens lack experience to make wise decisions behind the wheel and therefore are charged higher insurance rates.

Lauren Fix, a New York-based automotive expert and author of “Lauren Fix’s Guide to Loving Your Car,” says you’ll have an easier time persuading your kids to drive safely if you use devices or smartphone apps that monitor driving behavior.

These are popular with many auto insurance companies, says Janet Ruiz, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute. Some of these devices come with insurance discounts.

“They help teens to drive better and give parents opportunities to help them learn,” she says.

A good app should be “intuitive,” says Ross Rojek, chief technology officer of GoLocalApps.com in Sacramento, Calif. That means it’s easy to use without a lot of instruction. If you don’t understand how it works, it won’t be useful.

Learn about five products parents can use to monitor driving behavior.

Apps and devices to monitor teen driving

1. Star Driver. Allstate’s Star Driver program encourages parents and teens to agree on limits about how fast, where and when teens should drive. The Drivewise app for iPhone and Android devices can alert parents by text messages when teens arrive at their destinations. The app collects data about driving speed, time of day, hard braking events and driving routes.

2. Teen Driver. General Motors has released technology that enables cars to give teen drivers visual and audible warnings when they exceed speeds preset by parents. If the warnings are ignored, they will surface in “vehicle report cards” that show how far and how fast the teens drove. To gain access, parents enter passwords on the GM MyLink telematics system. The first GM car to have this feature is the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. Reports to parents list any vehicle safety features that were used while teens were driving, such as stability control and anti-lock brakes.

Read more about the apps to help keep your teen driver safe here...