TrueMotion, Penn Medicine & Progressive to Nudge Users
TrueMotion, a smartphone telematics platform that powers Progressive Snapshot, has announced it will work with Penn Medicine and Progressive to investigate strategies to reduce distracted driving. The interventions will be delivered to users’ smartphones – “nudging” them to reduce distraction. The study is part of a $1.84m grant provided by the Federal Highway Administration to Penn Medicine.
“This distracted driving research will be game-changing for road safety and auto insurance. Nudges have been effective across many areas, including smoking, retirement savings, and organ donations. Nudges could be equally effective for distracted driving. We’re excited to work with Penn and Progressive on this research.” – TrueMotion CEO Ted Gramer.
Researchers will invite Progressive Snapshot customers to the study on their smartphone app. Participants will be randomly selected for distracted driving interventions. The interventions are based on proven behavioral economic strategies. They include:
- Silencing notifications while driving
- Providing demographic benchmarks for distraction behaviors
- Offering financial incentives for putting down the phone
“Distracted driving is a national epidemic that’s vastly underreported. Activities that cause distracted driving – such as handheld cellphone use – are illegal in many states, yet it still happens every day. The research study with TrueMotion and Progressive is designed to understand how we can reduce distracted driving across various demographic segments. We’ve assembled a team with expertise in behavioral economics and behavioral design, traffic safety, statistics, and epidemiology to assess the effectiveness of distracted driving interventions.” – Assistant professor of Emergency Medicine and Epidemiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and lead researcher on the project, Dr. Kit Delgado.
