Mobile phones and driving don’t generally go together well. In fact, motorists caught using their mobile now face a £200 fine and up to six points on their licence. But your smartphone can actually make life easier when you’re driving, and not just because you have your own built-in satnav. An app from an insurance giant means your mobile could be invaluable in the event you’re caught up in an accident on the road, and even mean cheaper insurance. Aviva has revamped its Aviva Drive app, which means motorists can now use their smartphone as a dashcam. It records journeys in short, unsaved loops, but when it detects a collision has taken place, it pauses filming and saves the clip directly to the app. You can also opt to manually save footage, so that you can play recordings back or share them with your insurer - which doesn’t have to be Aviva - via the app, which is free to download. There is a potential flaw to be aware of though - you won’t be able to use your phone as a satnav and a dashcam at the same time. Dashcams are becoming increasingly popular with motorists; around a quarter of drivers now have one mounted on their dashboard, recording what’s happening in the road ahead of them. This is very much a new trend too, with almost half of dashcam users adopting them for the first time in the last 12 months according to Aviva. The big selling point is that in the event of an incident, insurers are no longer entirely reliant on the recollections of the motorists involved - they now have video evidence which they can use to work out just who was at fault. This is a big deal for the motorists involved. According to a study by price comparison site uSwitch a couple of years ago, as many as 27% of innocent drivers have been unable to exonerate themselves following an accident, potentially leaving them to pay much higher premiums in the following years. With the support of a dashcam, there should be far less difficulty in explaining what happened and why it wasn’t your fault. Blair Turnbull, managing director of digital and retail at Aviva, said: “We know that some things are tricky to explain, but the Aviva Drive app means that motorists can have the peace of mind knowing that if the unexpected should happen when travelling from A to B, it’s been captured on camera.” Dashcam footage is not just useful at proving what did happen, it can also be a valuable tool in proving what didn’t. Last year an attempted ‘cash for crash’ scam was captured on camera thanks to the driver’s dashcam . A moped rider hurled himself onto the motorist’s windscreen, before accusing her of ramming into him. However, when she pointed out that the whole thing had been filmed on her dashcam, the would-be con and his accomplice - who was filming the aftermath - did a runner. Another major selling point of a dashcam is that it may lead to cheaper car insurance. Some insurers have announced that they will offer money off their cover if the driver has a dashcam installed, though as a study by Smartdriverclub has revealed, the actual number remains relatively small. For example, its study found that the likes of Zurich , NFU Mutual , Direct Line , Esure and Elephant offer no discounts for dashcams. It’s not easy to work out which insurers offer a discount if you’re searching for a policy through a price comparison site either, as only Confused.com allows you to specifically state you have a dashcam when conducting a search. It’s certainly not a given thing that having a dashcam will lead to a big saving on your policy, though it may make the actual process of claiming on your insurance more straightforward if you are involved in an accident.
Aviva has developed the Aviva Drive app, which transforms a driver's smartphone into a dashcam, recording journeys on a short, unsaved loop that can detect a collision and save the footage to the app. The app is available for Android phones running version 4.3, iOS devices with an iPhone or iPod touch 5.0, Windows Phone 8.1, The trend comes after 27% of drivers were unable to prove they were blameless for an accident, a study by uSwitch found. Dashcams could lead to cheaper car insurance too, though only a small number of insurers offer price incentives.