Autumn 2020 Eloy app update

It’s been an exciting 3 months for Eloy. Since our Big Red Button update in August we have worked hard to transform how people might think about a car and insurance app.

Between Lockdown 1 and Lockdown 2 we had a brief time to run live experiments with the app and push forward some new exciting features for this latest release. 

The main impact we hope to achieve with the Eloy app is to move motor insurance from a single protection service (car accident financial assistance) to on-the-road driver assurance (solving a wide range of road-based uncertainties).

For drivers, this assurance includes reducing risk with car related activities and we hope to achieve this by presenting high quality consumable information and suggested actions for drivers.

Rather than just maximising payout efficiency on a claim, we should also be reducing the likelihood of accidents and making drivers more satisfied on the road. 

Over time this is where the software provided by car manufacturers may intersect with the data processing of insurance companies and additional innovation by third party providers. For example. Tesla is now looking at how motor insurance can be transformed and we have some hunches about what they may be planning. 

Driver's Log

The app’s Driver’s Log will undergo a lot of transformation over the next few months. It started out as a useful testing interface for alpha testers – enabling us to tag locations on the road and share reported incidents – you can see my video of how this works here.

Driver’s Log is one area that clearly differentiates Eloy from telematics products.

Many car insurance telematics solutions gather driver data to make an assessment on their driving and ultimately influence the price a driver pays for their insurance.

This might be how-they-drive analytics, adjusting insurance premiums based upon speed and acceleration (high score good, low score bad), or when-they-drive analytics, for example increasing insurance premiums if they drive during the night. 

Driver's Log

Driver’s Log records driving activity, traffic incidents, pickup requests and messages

We’re doing something different. We think that the data we collect  can also be useful to drivers and their passengers for their own consumption.

This data might also be useful to other road users – such as information about leaving a car parking space – as it facilitates better traffic coordination. For this to work, there needs to be a highly effective way to share data with drivers and passengers and this is where the Driver’s Log comes into its own. 

For this release we focused our attention on the usability of the Driver’s Log making it really easy to filter, search and discover. Lots of information will appear here but the key aspect has been allowing users to either tap or use voice commands to filter the log information.

Each log entry also enables further app actions – such as launching navigation to the location of the log entries, as they are all GPS tagged.

Car and Account management

At first this might seem a little bit basic: tidying up how users manage app and car information. However we are thinking more long-term with this part of the app over time and will be building on it over time. 

Understanding favourite locations, routes, and driving styles as well as who uses the car as a driver or a passenger enables us to start building data-based services such as passenger pickup and voice controls for faster navigation.

Profile Screen
Car Profile Screen

Manage your cars and accounts for a better app experience

New Siri Shortcuts

We have previously discussed how we have constructed our database and managing app events to allow us to quickly add more voice controls over time.

Along with ensuring the app is aligned with the iOS 14 updates, we are introducing a few more voice controls.

Drivers will be able to search and launch navigation to log entries and passenger pickup requests via voice-only activation. 

Drivers can also perform some account and car admin tasks via voice, such as tagging who is in the car as a passenger.

Man Holding Phone With Siri Shortcuts

More Siri Shortcuts so you can keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road

Passenger pickup

This is a nice feature enabled by both the Driver’s Log and our navigation features.

A potential passenger can create a pickup request (think Uber’s request a taxi feature) and the driver can launch navigation to that location without touching the phone!

Once Lockdown 2 is over we think this could be a very useful feature for anyone who needs picking up after a night out, particularly if they’re a bit worse for wear. 

Of course it’s also a useful feature for parents being able to pick up their kids from a precise location.  And used in conjunction with the message feature in the Driver’s Log and hands-free navigation, you can have end-to-end communication while being fully compliant with the law. 

Little Boy By A Road

Passenger pickup means parents know exactly where their children are

Who's in the car

Inside car management we have built an interactive table so users can allocate who is currently in the car.

Whilst this might be limiting for the family school run, it has wider uses for school minibus trips, sports team trips (in multiple cars or on a coach), chaperone drivers and fleet cars.

This can also be controlled by some voice actions – including “add passenger” and “remove passenger”. Our Eloy user guide has more details on this. 

Move car users with a flick of the finger

Next update - early 2021

With lockdown returning we are focusing on a number of predictive analytics features for early next year. We welcome any requests or suggestions at hello@www.eloy.co.uk. 

We are also bolstering out our insurance section (the big red button) and looking for further input, including external suppliers and service providers.

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