(PRESS RELEASE) San Francisco, CA – March 31, 2016 – Mobile telematics company, Driveway Software, Inc., today announced the appointment of Mike Simmons as Chief Executive Officer. Driveway delivers a smartphone-deployed, cloud-based technology that helps drivers improve their driving skills and helps insurers reduce risk with better pricing data. The company patented the first purely smartphone-based solution that achieved mobile data reliability, making usage based insurance (UBI) scalable and cost-effective for the first time. Simmons aims to accelerate the use of telematics by insurance companies to make roads safer.
Simmons succeeds company founder and CTO, Igor Katsman, who will stay with the company, focusing on its next generation of mobile telematics technology.
“Mike is a product-focused leader with a track record of innovation in the IoT space,” said Gigi Levy-Weiss, Chairman of Driveway. “He has a strong history of building partnerships with leading insurance companies. Equally important, he understands what’s important to consumers and where the business is headed.”
Simmons was previously with Automatic Labs, where he architected partnerships with five of the top ten insurers in the US, in addition to partnerships with OEMs and other leaders in the automotive industry. Prior to Automatic, he was president of Directed Electronics, where he developed the first iPhone app that could remotely start and unlock your car, and was a co-founder of Octo Telematics North America, where he helped launch the UBI market in the U.S. He also held a finance position at Ford Motor Company and was a co-founder of TechSpace. He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
“I’m honored to join Igor and the team to lead Driveway to the next level of innovation at this exciting time in the industry,” said Simmons. “Driveway invented the technology that makes smartphone-based UBI possible years ago, and only recently has the industry recognized it’s promise and potential. I’m excited to help bring Driveway’s innovations to customers at scale. With great user experience design and Driveway’s best-in-class technology, we can make a significant positive impact on road safety.”
About Driveway
Driveway invented Smartphone UBI. Based in Silicon Valley, Driveway developed and patented the technology that enables insurers to measure and reward good driving behavior without the need for a plug-in device in the car. The company provides a turnkey, smartphone+cloud platform to deliver a cost-effective and frictionless UBI experience, which turns ordinary drivers into safe drivers and helps insurers find and reward them. On its sixth generation software platform, Driveway has the most mature technology and the most experienced team in the smartphone telematics space.
Contact:
Michael Haas
323.556.7000
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SOURCE Driveway Software, Inc.