The Safe System approach recognises that road safety outcomes depend on the collective performance of infrastructure, vehicles, regulation, and road users. Yet one major actor, motor insurers, has traditionally played a largely reactive role, focused on pricing risk rather than preventing it. The growth of telematics insurance creates an opportunity to reposition insurers as active contributors to safer road use.

Telematics allows insurers to observe real-world driving behaviour at scale, capturing indicators such as speed choice, acceleration and braking patterns, and driving context. This presentation describes a large-scale trial exploring how personalised coaching, delivered through AI-generated messaging, can use this data to support safer driving behaviour among insurance customers.

The project combined behavioural insights with a generative AI system producing short, personalised coaching messages. Instead of presenting drivers with scores alone, the system translated recent driving patterns into targeted feedback designed to encourage safer choices and reinforce positive habits.

The trial involved 5,000 private motor insurance customers over a six-month period. Drivers receiving AI-generated coaching were compared with those receiving standard telematics feedback. The evaluation examined changes in driving behaviour indicators alongside psychological measures including personality traits and driving mindfulness.

The study demonstrates how insurers can move beyond passive risk measurement toward active prevention. By combining telematics data with scalable communication tools, insurance-based interventions have the potential to influence everyday driving behaviour across large populations. The presentation will share practical lessons from the trial and consider how telematics programmes could play a more explicit role within Safe System road safety strategies.

Dr Neale Kinnear, Chartered Psychologist, Affective Mobility

Dr Neale Kinnear is a Chartered Psychologist specialising in driver behaviour, transport safety, and technology-enabled risk reduction. With over 20 years’ experience, he applies behavioural science to develop practical interventions and policy that improve road safety outcomes.

He works with insurers, regulators, road authorities and technology providers through his consultancy, Affective Mobility, and previously served as Head of Transport Safety at TRL and led risk platform development at Humn AI and Aon.