History and Mission
ADEPT DRIVER: "Delivering science based training that significantly reduces auto collisions."
History:
Advanced Drivers Education Products and Training, Inc. (ADEPT) was founded in 1995 to provide a program that would significantly reduce automobile crashes among teen drivers. (Teen Drivers have the highest collision rate of any age group: Drivers:16 - 18 years of age are 400% more likely to die in a car crash than 25 - 35 year old drivers.)
A team including leaders in the insurance industry along with world-recognized doctors and behavioral scientists was formed to re-engineer crash reduction training. The team determined that science, married to technology, would produce a viable teen crash reduction product. The ADEPT team first identified the critical driving and social factors that empirically related to teen driver crashes. Then they began developing a technology based training model that addressed these factors while appealing to the teen audience
Our innovative approach looked at teen car crashes as a behavioral disease that was killing our youth. We employed the medical/scientific model to guide our re-engineering efforts. Starting with epidemiology studies to determine the cause of teen crashes, we identified the six factors that were causing over 90% of the car crashes involving teens. Not surprisingly, we found these factors were either totally ignored in traditional pre-licensing driver education or not addressed effectively. At this point we decided to focus on the obvious problems ignored in driver education and build a post licensing behavioral intervention that would forever change the driver safety industry. This effort would take many years at a cost of over 6 million dollars to develop.
After 5 years of testing and validation, the teenSMART program was released. The results have proven that the investment in scientific research and advanced technology were right on the mark. Teens who have completed the teenSMART course have a measurable decrease in automobile crashes with matched control groups. Insurance claims have been reduced by 25% - 40%.
ADEPT has an ongoing commitment to improve teenSMART through continuous evaluation and analysis. Because of this commitment, teenSMART continues to be the leading teen crash reduction program.
teenSMART has become the crash reduction program for teen drivers most widely used by the insurance industry for one simple reason: It delivers measurable reductions in car crashes. teenSMART has been subjected to the scrutiny of an army of insurance company actuaries who have approved its use to lower claims experience. The program has become the most evaluated and validated teen crash reduction program in existence. teenSMART is approved by more State Departments of Insurance for higher discounts than any other teen crash reduction program available today.
In 2005, ADEPT turned its attention to another sector of the population, drivers over 55 years of age. Not only does this group experience collision rates second only to teen drivers, it is also the fastest growing. ADEPT recognizes how important safe driving and maintaining driving privileges is to these adults.
Using our proven medical/scientific development model, we began to focus on the problems identified in our epidemiology studies on older driver crashes. In the course of development, we have invented some new psychometrics and made some improvements to existing psychometrics to attack the leading causes of mature driver car crashes. The program is designed to improve older driver’s skills and brain function in the context of driving. The driving simulations used in lifelong driver are key to the program’s certain success and early adoption by the insurance industry. Another focus of the program is to extend the safe driving lifecycle of older drivers. Reference information is also included on keeping your license.
A new company, Lifelong Driver LLC was created to design, develop and bring the product to market. Not surprising, we call our new mature driver program,“Lifelong Driver”. After 6 years and millions of dollars in development and testing, Lifelong Driver was released in the Fall of 2011. ADEPT is the licensed reseller of Lifelong Driver LLC products.
ADEPT is and will remain committed to delivering science based training that significantly reduces auto collisions.
