First results from the Empowr Mobility pilot show participation increased young people’s knowledge of safe driving and changed their behaviour behind the wheel.
Empower aims to put aspiring young Australians suffering transport disadvantage into safer and more affordable vehicles to help them access work and education opportunities.
An initiative of NRSPP, the Empowr social enterprise provides 5-star ANCAP rated vehicles fitted with the CARA ‘virtual mentor’, an education and awareness platform that uses telematics data to provide specific feedback and educational messages on people’s driving.
The pilot project, which operated in Victoria with the support of the Victorian Department of Transport and Coffey Ford, set out to test if it was possible to change the attitudes and behaviours of young people towards being a safe driver and understanding the importance of a safe vehicle.
Results of the pilot showed CARA provided the ability for young drivers to reflect on their driving in real time, which motivated them to improve and become a safer driver.
“The most important outcome and benefit from the pilot program was the robust evidence of sustainable attitude and behaviour change over time,” the evaluation report concluded.
“The pre-pilot survey indicated that the level of awareness of the importance of a safe vehicle when both learning to drive and subsequent driving was very low. The progress survey results indicated that the program was able to turn that lack of awareness around, via the drivers having direct experience of driving a very safe new vehicle that included access to the Drive App CARA.
“The results of the pilot indicated that CARA, through ongoing real time feedback, was able to motivate young drivers to want to improve and get a better score for their driving. This promoted self-responsibility by default, as the desire to improve becomes a motivational challenge.”
A second larger Empowr pilot is planned for the late 2021.
Full results from the initial pilot are available in the ‘Final Report – Empowr Pilot’ and to find out more about the program, visit empowrmobility.com