Drive Smart Sensitivity Anxiety

Motability

I've had a car on Motablity for around two and a half years now, and I'm due my next car at around September time.

Obviously, I have heard of the new Drive Smart Black Box scheme, and am anxious about what this means for me. I have done a lot of research into it, and I am going to opt for the telemetrics device to be fitted, over the Bluetooth phone connection method.

I want to know how sensitive the speeding and smoothness factors are. I have seen conflicting accounts on how sensitive the telemetrics device is compared to the Bluetooth phone version is.

I am by no means a speeder, or bad driver by any stretch of the imagination, but I am still very concerned. There's been times when I've blipped over the speed limit for 2–3 seconds in a 30 zone on a hill — is the black box extremely sensitive, does it allow for human error? I may just be overthinking it, but I don't want to get my lease cancelled over some accidental blip in speed. Again, I am no speeder, this is more so me being extra paranoid.

Also, "smoothness"... I'm unsure what that effectively means. I know it records breaking and acceleration, fair enough, but what is smoothness? It sounds extremely vague. Does this mean if I'm swerving to avoid potholes, or other dangers?

If anyone can bring some insight to what this all means, and if you've first-hand experience with the black box version over the phone one, it would be greatly appreciated if you can post below.

I want to know how much of a threshold is given for situations I've stated. It all sounds fine on paper, but in practice, I don't want to be driving in fear of getting cancelled over human "mistakes".

Posted May 1, 2026, 9:15 PM UTC

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