Mercury Insurance Launches MercuryGO for Florida Drivers

LOS ANGELES, July 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Mercury Insurance announced that the company has made its usage-based insurance app, MercuryGO, available to drivers in Florida to help improve driving skills and traffic safety. The app acts as a virtual driving coach, providing skill scores that give real-time feedback about driving behavior. Mercury auto insurance policyholders who enroll to use the app immediately receive up to a 10% participation discount. Then, when MercuryGO customers renew their policies, they could receive a discount of up to 20%, depending upon their driving score.

"Mercury wants to help make Florida's roads as safe as possible," said Mercury Insurance Director of Product Management Mike Dawdy. "Most car crashes can be avoided, and MercuryGO is a simple way to help keep drivers focused on their main task. Our smartphone app will help educate drivers of all ages and experience levels about the importance of staying alert behind the wheel, with the ultimate goal of reducing fatalities and serious injuries. Plus, this program empowers drivers to save a lot of money on their insurance."

Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports there were 3,135 motor vehicle traffic fatalities in 2019. Additionally:

• There were 255,353 injuries sustained from car crashes in 2019.
• A person died on a Florida roadway nearly every day due to distracted driving in 2020.

The MercuryGO app generates a driving skill score, which is calculated based on categories that are closely correlated with car crashes: excessive speeding, hard braking, distracted driving (i.e., phone motion and screen interaction), and road type.

Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), Mercury's technology partner, is the world's largest smartphone telematics provider, winning multiple awards. CMT is the pioneer of: usage-based insurance with smartphones (in 2012); the measurement of phone distraction (2013); behavior-based insurance (2014); and real-time crash alerts with roadside assistance (2015).  

"Mercury Insurance is utilizing the DriveWell platform to help drivers reduce distracted driving, speeding, and hard braking by keeping them engaged and providing timely feedback," said Ryan McMahon, CMT's Vice President of Insurance and Government Affairs. "MercuryGO will help make Florida roads safer and has the potential to reduce the number of car collisions, injuries and fatalities."

CMT's research shows that 37% of all car trips in the U.S. in 2019 involved significant driver phone distraction; between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., that figure rises to 41% of all U.S. car trips. MercuryGO will help solve that problem by using technology that has reduced distracted driving by 29%, speeding by 45%, and hard braking by 17%.

MercuryGO provides useful in-app tips to help users become safer drivers. Added benefits include:

• A sharing option for families, which allows all participating drivers to see who is the safest.
• The ability for parents to receive real-time feedback about their teen's driving behavior, including when, where and how fast they're traveling.
• Licensed teen drivers, 18 years and younger, who are registered for MercuryGO will instantly receive a 10% participation discount on auto insurance.
• The opportunity to earn up to a 20% discount at renewal.

Currently, MercuryGO is only available to Florida, Oklahoma and Texas drivers. Visit www.mercuryinsurance.com/GO or contact a local Mercury Insurance agent to enroll.

Tweet the news: MercuryGO is available in Florida and might save drivers up to a 20% on auto insurance. Visit www.MercuryInsurance.com/GO

About Mercury Insurance  
Mercury Insurance (MCY) is a multiple-line insurance organization predominantly offering personal automobile, homeowners and commercial insurance through a network of independent agents in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. Since 1962, Mercury has specialized in offering quality insurance at affordable prices. For more information visit www.mercuryinsurance.com or Facebook and follow the company on Twitter.

About Cambridge Mobile Telematics

CMT's mission is to make the world's roads and drivers safer. Since its first product launch in 2012 that pioneered mobile usage-based insurance, CMT has become the world's leading telematics and analytics provider for insurers, rideshares, and fleets. CMT's DriveWell platform uses mobile sensing and behavioral science to measure driving risk and incentivize safer driving, while its Claim Studio reduces the claims cycle time with real-time crash detection, crash reconstruction, and damage assessment using telematics and artificial intelligence. CMT has over 50 active programs with insurers and other partners, improving safety for millions of drivers every day around the world. Started based on research at MIT, CMT is headquartered in Cambridge MA. To learn more, visit www.cmtelematics.com and follow CMT on Twitter @cmtelematics.

SOURCE Mercury Insurance