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USAA SafePilot® FAQ

Common questions

Before you can use the app, you need to enroll in the SafePilot program.

The USAA SafePilot program offers a chance to earn a discount for your safe driving habits. First, you’ll receive up to a 10% participation discount on your auto insurance policy for enrolling and participating in the USAA SafePilot program. Once you download and set up the USAA SafePilot App, it will automatically begin tracking your driving behavior, starting with a 14-day learning period. The learning period gives you a chance to learn how the app works, and gets to know your driving behaviors, before trips are considered towards your score.

When the learning period ends, you’ll have a fresh start for the remainder of your policy period. After you’ve driven an additional combination of 325 miles and 16 hours, you’ll be able to view your projected household discount of up to 30% for your next policy term.

Participation in the USAA SafePilot program won’t ever raise your premium. It’s simply a way to show you how well you’re driving and help you potentially earn a safe driving discount.

At every policy term renewal, we’ll reset your driving score and give you another fresh start.

Data and connection

The USAA SafePilot App runs in the background and gathers details about each trip you take, including:

  • Location
  • Time of day
  • If you’re the passenger or driver
  • Phone Handling
  • Hand-held Calling
  • Hands-free Calling
  • Harsh Braking
  • Annualized Hours Driven
  • Potential accidents detected

Scoring and discounts

We base your earned discount on your driving score, which you’ll see in the USAA SafePilot App. This driving score is determined by many factors including harsh braking, phone handling, and how many hours you drive. To ensure you receive the highest possible discount, USAA encourages you to practice Safe Driving habits while behind the wheel.

Each policy period we will use your household’s trip data to determine which drivers have met the requirements for an earned discount. Each participating driver must log at least 325 miles and 16 hours driven each policy period to be eligible for a score and discount.

If there are multiple drivers on your policy, we’ll base the discount on the scores of the drivers participating in the program.

We recommend that all eligible drivers participate so your policy is eligible for the maximum discount.

An eligible driver is:

  • Inside the participating area.
  • Currently in good standing with USAA.
  • Has a driver's license.
  • Is listed as a driver on the policy

Avoidable infractions

We understand you may use your phone for music, navigation or other phone apps while driving. As long as you secure your mobile device before the trip starts and don’t interact with your phone while driving, you will avoid a phone-handling infraction.

Your driving score is calculated based on trends over hundreds of miles, so one infraction won’t substantially impact your score.

Trips

No. The USAA SafePilot App runs in the background and will track your driving without having to open the app.

Crash detection

Your safety is our top priority. If the app detects a potential accident, we’ll reach out to make sure you’re OK and provide options for you to quickly file a claim. If needed, you’ll be able to call 911 directly from the app.

Technical support

Possible reasons:

  • Location permissions, motion and fitness, or app background refresh settings have been disabled. To check your settings, close the USAA SafePilot App, then reopen it and the Permissions Manager will prompt you on any settings that need fixed.
  • Your trip was too short. A trip won’t record if the distance was less than .25 miles.
  • If your iOS or Android device is in a low power mode, the trip won’t record. If it’s enabled during a trip, the remainder of the trip won’t be recorded and the information that was recorded can’t be uploaded until the device is out of low power mode.
  • The operating system and third-party Android apps that are used for battery optimization, also known as app or task killers, can stop USAA SafePilot from running in the background.
  • Specific settings vary by application and phone model. In general, you should be able to keep USAA SafePilot from being automatically disabled.
  • We also recommend reopening the USAA SafePilot App to ensure you’ve verified your enrollment and the app is running.