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New technology to keep a watchful eye on how well you drive is coming to a much-loved luxury car company's most popular models – and you'll be scored accordingly.
Volvo models in the UK will soon be compatible with a safety app that analyses a driver's braking, acceleration and cornering – and real-time driving insights and tips will be shared directly via the car's infotainment system.
Each driver will receive their own dynamic and personalised Safety Coach score on an app, which will encourage them to become a 'better and safer driver'.
While this will be an optional app, and Volvo says it will 'empower' motorists to lower their insurance rates, many people will be worried that monitoring car owners has climbed to uncomfortable levels.
The app will first arrive this month in Sweden and Norway. It will be available for Volvo model years 2020 and onwards, including best-selling models such as the XC60 and XC90, as well as new electric models including the ES90 saloon.
We asked Alexander Franke, global head of insurance at Volvo Cars, how the app will work, what drivers should or shouldn't be concerned about, and when it will arrive in the UK.
Volvo will soon offer a voluntary Safety Coach app that analyses a driver's braking, acceleration and cornering. Drivers will be scored out of 100 - it could reduce insurance costs
Q: How long are drivers assessed before being given a score? Does each fault immediately deduct marks, or is it repeated faults over a period?
A: The Safety Coach Score reflects your driving over the past 14 days with higher scores indicating smoother, more mindful driving.
The score is based on four types of driving events: Excessive speeding, hard braking, aggressive cornering, and rapid acceleration.
These can all influence the score, depending on how often they happen, how severe they are and how long they last.
Q: Are you scored out of 100?
A: Yes, and it is technically possible to get a perfect score.
You can improve your score by focusing on smooth, consistent driving by sticking to safe speeds, braking early and gradually, and by slowing down before corners and taking them smoothly.
Q: Will insurers be informed of poor driving as well as good driving and drivers see their insurance premiums affected as a result?
A: Safety Coach is designed to support and encourage safer driving, not penalise the driver. Sharing driving data with insurance companies is completely optional.
Q: How long do you have to share your data before you can benefit from a usage-based insurance offer?
A: This will be market based and offer dependent so it’s difficult to give a generic answer. The driver's safety score reflects the past 14 days of driving.
Q: While drivers can opt in or out, do you think there is still a 'Big Brother' element that drivers will dislike, especially with the use of AI?
A: Safety Coach is entirely optional, where drivers themselves choose whether to opt-in to Safety Coach and then separately choose whether to opt-in to data sharing with an affiliated insurance partner.
This personal data is processed for the purpose of providing driving insights to you and is shared with Volvo Cars and our telematics technology provider Cambridge Mobile Telematics.
Drivers may also later opt-out of Safety Coach at any time in which case the personal data collection is immediately ceased.
Q: Is this how Volvo plans to use AI in its cars – to make them safer?
A: We use the latest technology to help improve safety and elevate quality of life for our customers – the Safety Coach is a good example of how we leverage AI for that purpose, but not the only one.
We have for example also recently launched Google Gemini in our cars to help drivers interact with the car in an easier way which helps make driving more enjoyable.
Q: When will Safety Coach arrive in the UK?
A: We can't share an exact date for when the feature will become available in the UK.
The app will be rolled out globally after an initial launch in Sweden and Norway this August.
Q: Will the compatible UK cars be the same as Sweden and Norway? Model year 2020 onwards?
A: Yes. To start with, Volvo Cars Safety Coach will be rolled out to the following models with a Google-based infotainment system from model year 2020 and onwards:
EX60, XC40, EX40, EC40, S60, V60, XC60, XC90 V90, EX90, ES90, excluding EX30.
Safety score: Volvo is rolling out the new app and it could come to Britain shortly
What else do you need to know about Volvo's Safety Coach app?
The Safety Coach app is a collaboration between Volvo Cars and Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world's largest telematics and AI company for safer mobility, and uses CMT's algorithm to create each score.
The insights gathered by the app will be sent directly through the infotainment screen and the Volvo Cars mobile app, and the tips are guided by findings from Volvo Cars' own real-world safety knowledge and data.
Mikael Ljung Aust, driver behaviour expert at Volvo Cars, said: 'Our research shows that many accidents involve some form of surprise. What helps prevent that is predictability.
'Staying within expected speed ranges and avoiding abrupt manoeuvres makes your driving easier for others to anticipate and reduces the risk of a collision.
'Supporting safe driver behaviours is a key piece of the puzzle we need to solve to reach zero collisions, and tools like Safety Coach can help turn these insights into safer everyday habits.'
After its rollout in Sweden and Norway, the Safety Coach app will be introduced in the US and other European markets, and insurance-related offers are also planned as part of this rollout.
Renault introduced its 'Safety Score' feature in 2024, providing owners with a score out of 100 for their driving performance for each journey
Drivers had their score reduced for things like the car's Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) feature intervened
Volvo isn't the first carmaker to introduce this kind of safety-scoring technology.
In 2024, Renault introduced a 'Safety Score' system that issued owners with a personalised mark out of 100 at the end of each trip in the hope that drivers would get competitive and want the highest ratings, thereby improving road safety.
Marks were docked if any of the vehicle's suite of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems kicked in during the journey, including lane assist, automated emergency braking and Intelligent Speed Assistance alerts.
Such telematics-based insurance products help young people slash their premiums by allowing insurers to track their behaviour on the road.