QMIC and QIC officials at the launch of the new road safety app on Tuesday. PICTURE: Thajudheen

By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter

A new mobile phone app, launched by the Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (QMIC), in partnership with Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), will allow motorists to improve their driving habits and enjoy financial rewards while ensuring road safety.

The app, ‘How’s My Driving?’ helps to assess and improve driving habits. The right driving habits will help the motorists to claim incentives as well as discounts on insurance policies from QIC as behaviour-based insurance pricing is planned in the future.

The app, launched on Tuesday, is available for download through the iTunes store. An updated Android version will be available soon.

The details of the app were announced by QMIC executive director Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya and QIC's deputy group president and CEO - Mena region Salem al-Mannai.

The users of the new app can monitor their driving behaviour, score, share their results on social media, and compete with other drivers for the safest driver ranking.

With a friendly user-interface, the app is optimised for local and regional markets, and is available in both Arabic and English.

Dr Abu-Dayya said, “We hope to reduce the escalating number of car crashes in the country through this initiative. It is a simple, yet innovative, and easy-to-use solution that addresses multiple needs for both consumers and enterprises.

''We are happy to see more national and governmental entities co-operate with QMIC on adopting locally-engineered solutions.

“The app gives feedback on speeding, acceleration and braking by giving scores to the users on their behaviour. In addition, it gives overall points and a ranking for your driving. The app also collects details on the violations or wrong practices and provide feedback. This helps the motorists to correct the driving habits and assess their driving objectively.”

Al-Mannai said the launch of the app marks the beginning of a new era for QIC and the way motor insurance premiums are calculated.

"This app will help drivers realise how safe their driving is and help identify areas where they would need to improve. By using the app, the public would have a significant role in creating a successful new culture of safe driving in the country.”

He also noted that QIC intends to introduce behaviour-based insurance pricing, so that safe drivers can enjoy lower premiums.

The app aims to motivate users to drive safely on roads and continuously monitor their driving behaviour, which in the long run can have a major effect on road safety.

QIC’s support for this solution is one of the major steps to introduce a ‘Pay How You Drive’ culture in the country.

The new app is based on QMIC’s Salamtek Enterprise solution and helps in reaching its ultimate goal for road safety, ‘ RoadMap to Zero’.