State Farm rolls out crash detection tech

State Farm has now joined USAA in incorporating crash detection capabilities into their respective mobile applications.

While USAA was ahead of the curve, introducing the feature in August 2022, State Farm has recently followed suit with the launch of an Accident Assistance feature in its Drive Safe & Save app, initially rolling it out to customers in Texas and Florida. Upon detecting an accident, the service automatically sends assistance and contacts the driver to see if he would like to file a claim.

By enabling the feature, which isn’t bulletproof (“Accident Assistance may not detect all accidents and is not a replacement for directly contacting emergency services,” according to the terms), the policyholders are granting State Farm and its vendors explicit permissions, including contacting emergency services or towing, reaching out via various means such as phone, text, or push notifications, and recording phone calls made to emergency services.

“Accident Assistance will only detect potential accidents when the Application is actively running. State Farm does not guarantee the uninterrupted availability of the Applications and its services, including Accident Assistance. The availability of the Accident Assistance functionality is not a guarantee of emergency assistances or towing services and State Farm shall not have responsibility for any actions taken or not taken by third parties in response to an accident alert, including but not limited to towing and emergency response services.”

As background, last year, USAA integrated crash detection into its SafePilot app. The technology uses smartphone sensors to detect potential collisions and offers immediate steps for users, including the option to call 911 or file a claim, significantly streamlining the post-accident process.