Smart Driver by Porsche Insurance: How Telematics and Gamification Are Shaping the Future of Auto Insurance

Introduction: From Actuarial Tool to Customer Engagement Ecosystem

In this episode of the Insurance Telematics Podcast, Harald speaks with Barbora from Porsche Insurance about the evolution and success of the Smart Driver app. What started as an actuarial experiment has become a powerful tool for customer engagement, combining gamification, cashback incentives, and real-time behavioral insights. Together, they explore how Porsche Insurance is leveraging smartphone telematics, psychological user profiling, and strategic integrations with automotive partners to build a next-generation insurance experience.

Measuring Success with Telematics

Number of daily active users
User feedback from surveys, support, and app ratings
Continuous monthly growth (currently 6%)
Improved claims ratios in the Smart Driver user segment

Who Are the Smart Drivers?

There’s no clear demographic. Instead, Smart Drivers tend to be:

Curious about their own driving behavior
Motivated by cashback and savings
Interested in gamified experiences
Excited by app-based challenges and rewards

Integration with Automotive Brands and Dealer Networks

Smart Driver is integrated into the dealer network of Porsche Holding (Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Škoda, etc.), offering up to 20% cashback for safe driving. Broad integration ensures visibility across all driver types.

Running a Lean Operation

Despite its impact, Smart Driver is managed by just a few part-time employees:

Project lead
Marketing specialist
Marketing automation expert
Customer support representative

What’s Next for Smart Driver?

Future plans include:

OEM integration
Attracting new customers
New strategic directions (not yet disclosed)

Why Open Access to All Drivers?

Smart Driver is available to all drivers in Austria, not just Porsche Insurance customers, to:

Broaden the user base for better data analysis
Increase brand awareness
Encourage switching by offering limited features to non-customers

OEM Data vs. Smartphone Telematics

The future is a hybrid model:

OEM data is reliable for vehicle metrics
Smartphones provide crucial behavioral insights
Apps create new customer touchpoints

From Actuarial Concept to Marketing Platform

Smart Driver began as an actuarial initiative and evolved into a marketing-driven ecosystem, offering features like:

Daily user interaction
Customer loyalty tools
Green scores and sustainability features
Weather alerts, prediction, and prevention tools

Conclusion

Smart Driver is a lean, psychologically-driven telematics solution enhancing both pricing accuracy and user engagement. With continuous development and strategic integrations, it’s a cornerstone of Porsche Insurance’s customer experience strategy.

Full Transcript of the Episode

Harald
You mentioned that you did a survey to understand what people like or dislike about the smart driver app. How are you defining success for you as an insurance company?

Barbora
From my marketing perspective, it’s the number of daily users, the feedback we get from users—not just through the questionnaire, but the feedback that customer support gets, app ratings in the app store, etc. That’s something that makes me very happy from the marketing point of view. Then of course, we have a 6% growth rate every month, which is a number we’re very proud of. And as I mentioned before, the smart driver group as a whole has a lower claims ratio. So I would say it’s a success from a strategic point of view for the insurance in general.

Harald
So it seems that it has become an integral part of your DNA. I recently ordered a car with a Volkswagen dealer, did my financing with Porsche Bank, and I saw the option to select smart driver to get up to 20% cashback depending on my driving style. So you really incorporated this with your dealer network. And Porsche in Austria is dealing with brands like Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Lamborghini, Bentley, Ducati, Porsche.

Barbora
Mhm.

Harald
Not the typical smart drivers. What—who is the typical smart driver?

Barbora
We have not been able to identify this group. We had some assumptions, but there’s no age or demographical measure that defines the smart driver. It’s more people interested in learning about their own driving style, people who want to get the cashback and are excited that their own driving helps them save money. It’s more psychological than demographical. Also, people who like fun gamification apps.

Harald
Awesome. So it sounds that smart driver is deeply integrated with you. From an actuarial perspective, into pricing, into marketing communication. You issue behavior-based or event-based messages like weather alerts, have goodies, do challenges. You operate a broad ecosystem. How many people actually work on this program?

Barbora
It’s nice that you think that, but no. Very few people work on the smart driver app from our side, and none full-time. They do it as an integral part of their own specialties. We have a project lead, someone for marketing, someone for marketing automation in the background, and someone for customer support. So basically a couple of people part-time. After the setup, that’s all we need to keep it up and running and developing new things.

Harald
What can we expect in the future from smart driver? Anything you want or can disclose?

Barbora
I don’t want to disclose too much. The aura of what comes next should be a bit of a question mark. But we have big plans. We’re thinking about integration with OEMs, using it to attract new customers, and many other directions to bring smart driver to the next level.

Harald
You mentioned bringing in new people. I noticed your app is available not only to people insured with Porsche Bank or related companies, but to everyone in Austria with an Austrian App Store or Google Play account. Why?

Barbora
Because why limit it to our customers? Initially we wanted to learn more about the general driving behavior of people. For that to happen statistically, you need a broader base. Also, we want Porsche Insurance to be known to more people—so that new customers consider us next time they insure a car. They can use the challenges and the goody store, but not the cashback. That can motivate them to switch to Porsche Versicherung in the future.

Harald
So make the customer say, I could have earned 20% of my insurance premium back but I’m not because I’m insured elsewhere—so my next car should be insured with you.

Barbora
Exactly.

Harald
You mentioned OEMs. There is already availability of OEM data, and your company is strongly related to many of the largest automotive manufacturers in Europe. How do you see this? When will we be at a stage where we can get meaningful OEM data for better pricing decisions?

Barbora
That’s a hard question. In my perspective, OEM data will play a big role in telematics in the future. Will it be the only role? Probably not. It’s important to see what kind of data is available, how it’s structured, and how it becomes available for insurance. So I would say it’s more of a mid-range time frame.

Harald
What we always claim—and I’m curious about your opinion—is that OEMs can give data on the car, but not on people outside the car. The average car is driven about 4–5% of its lifetime, so mostly people are not in cars. That’s why we believe smartphone telematics is important. It offers a human-machine interface, a graphical user interface, and creates customer touchpoints that insurance companies normally don’t have. Would you agree?

Barbora
I completely agree. In my opinion, the future is a hybrid version of both. OEM data with an app layer. Vehicle data is important—probably more reliable for things like mileage—but behavioral-based data, which only a smartphone can provide, is still a crucial part of the scoring.

Harald
Awesome. One last question. When you implemented smart driver, what was the process? Who was the driver? Was it an actuarial or marketing push?

Barbora
The whole story began before my time, so I can only share my perspective. It definitely started from the actuarial point of view and quickly became a marketing instrument. We realized the potential of communicating with the customer daily and the customer loyalty aspect. Now, the actuarial part is kind of set—we continue to evaluate if the initial hypotheses are still valid, how the scores are developing, how damages look. But marketing is also very strong. We’ve implemented the green score and the sustainability aspect, trying to build a whole ecosystem.

Harald
Awesome. Let me summarize. You initially created a product driven by actuaries, but it was quickly adopted by marketing. You targeted demographics like young drivers to validate assumptions, and found many are actually good drivers. You realized that scoring alone isn’t enough, so you added complementary features like points, goody stores, and challenges. You implemented prediction and prevention, such as weather alerts. You run the program with just a few people part-time, yet it’s an integral part of your company’s DNA.

Barbora
Mhm.

Harald
Can we conclude with this?

Barbora
Yeah, good conclusion.

Harald
Awesome. Barbora, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Barbora
You’re very welcome.

Harald
We hope to have you again when you can disclose all the great new things you’re planning. Thank you for watching and listening. If you like this podcast, please leave a like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to know when new episodes are out. Thank you, Barbora. Thank you all.