Road safety
ICBC's Techpilot project
Can technology help make B.C. roads safer while improving driver behaviour? Techpilot aimed to answer this question, with some help from newer drivers.
ICBC conducted a telematics-based study from January 2020 to October 2021. The study used a telematics-based app and included over 2,000 participants, each with less than five years of driving experience. Half of the participants received feedback from the app throughout the study and the other half only received feedback at the end.
What is telematics?
Telematics is the combination of telecommunications and information technology. Vehicle telematics involves a data collection device used to collect driving-related metrics.
Feedback and gamification
For those who received feedback throughout the Techpilot, the app provided trip details, driving scores and rankings and had monthly driving challenges and rewards. Though engagement reduced over time, participants said that earning rewards was part of their motivation to improve their driving behaviours and sustain the changes they made.
Results
Techpilot monitored all participants' driving habits and behaviours, such as driving frequency, distracted driving, braking, and speeding. Those who received feedback and incentives throughout the study had fewer incidents of:
rapid acceleration
speeding
harsh braking
Improvements in driving behaviour were immediate and mostly sustained, though there were no observed changes in severity.
Complete Techpilot project results 
Summary of the Techpilot results
Limitations
Results of the project are limited due to various factors, including limited sample size.
Additionally, Techpilot took place during the COVID-19 global pandemic and may not represent the norms around driving habits or behaviours due to factors like reduced traffic.
What's next?
Based on the results and feedback from participants, telematics shows promise in helping people drive safer and moving road safety forward in B.C.
