Learn · Last reviewed October 31, 2026
Teen driving apps and devices, compared
Most tools for teen drivers watch the phone or the car: where it goes, how fast, how hard it brakes, and whether the phone gets used. TruceVision adds a camera that saves video clips for parents. AutoSight One is the only one here built around where the driver’s eyes are, and it keeps no video.
Design concept
What does each one watch?
Each answers a different question. Here’s the short version; the details and sources follow.
| Product | What it watches | Speaks to the driver in the moment | Records video | Price, as its maker lists it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoSight One | Where the driver’s eyes are, day and night | Yes: a chime after 2 seconds off the road | No | $129 founding price, $149 planned retail; optional Family plan. Not on sale yet. |
| TruceVision | Phone handling and seatbelt (camera); speeding, close following, rolling stops, hard braking, sharp turns, fast starts | Yes: in-car voice coaching | Yes, no sound: a clip of each flagged moment for parents | $149, then $12.99 a month for Premium after the first 30 days |
| Life360 | Location; on paid plans, driving and phone use read from the phone | Not described; reports go to the family | No | Free tier and paid plans |
| HeyPolo | Location, speed and phone use, crash detection | Not described | Not described | One flat fee per household (amount not stated) |
| Miles Plug | The car: location, speed, hard braking, engine and battery health, crashes | Not described | No camera described | $99, plus a membership from the equivalent of $11 a month |
The details, product by product
AutoSight One
A small infrared camera that faces the driver and watches one thing: whether their eyes are on the road. When they’ve been off it for 2 seconds in one stretch, it chimes, so the driver hears it while there’s still road to save. Every frame is read in the car and thrown away; trip summaries (a Focus Score and the moments that mattered) go to the app, where the driver sees each drive first. It’s a prototype and isn’t on sale yet; reserving one is free.
TruceVision, from TRUCE Family
A camera on the windshield with a driver-facing camera, plus an app on the teen’s phone. TRUCE says it watches for eight risky moments: close following, speeding, rolling stops, phone handling and no seatbelt with the camera, and hard braking, sharp cornering and rapid acceleration with motion sensing. It coaches the teen out loud in the car. When it flags an event, it saves a video clip (video only, no sound) and makes it available in the parent app, with the route and a Drive Score after the trip. Families who prefer road-only recording can turn the cabin camera off. The app can also block apps you choose while your teen drives. Price: $149, with the first 30 days of Premium included, then $12.99 a month; without Premium, TRUCE says recording, in-car coaching and app blocking keep working, and parents still see the most recent drive.[1]
Life360
A family location app. On its paid plans, it detects drives and reports phone use it reads from the phone itself, such as the phone being unlocked or moved while the car is going.[2] It tells the family. A glance at a phone in a mount, at a passenger or at the center screen touches nothing on the phone, so there’s nothing for it to read.
HeyPolo
A family safety app for iPhone and Android, described in a sponsored article on MakeUseOf as built by Surfshark’s cybersecurity and privacy team, and “built around consent, not surveillance.” Families choose what’s shared, from an exact location to a general area or nothing. Its driving features include monitoring of speed and phone use, crash detection and a driving safety score. Pricing is one flat fee per household; the article doesn’t give the amount.[3] The article doesn’t describe a camera or how phone use is detected.
Miles Plug, from Miles Labs
A small device that plugs into the car’s diagnostic port, launched October 19, 2026, from a company founded by former Ring and Blink leaders. It shows the car’s location and trip details (route, speed, fuel use and driving events such as hard braking), watches engine, battery, fuel and oil life, and alerts emergency contacts after a crash. It works in most cars from 2008 and newer. Price: $99, with membership plans starting at the equivalent of $11 a month, paid upfront.[4] It watches the car, not the driver.
Which apps can’t you download anymore?
As of October 19, 2026, Damoov reports that three apps older roundups still recommend are no longer available.[5]
- TrueMotion Family: its App Store and Google Play pages are gone. Cambridge Mobile Telematics bought TrueMotion in 2021, and its technology now powers Verizon’s driving insights.
- DriveScribe: removed from Google Play in December 2023, and its website no longer loads.
- Mama Bear: no longer listed in the app stores, and its old web address now hosts unrelated content.
Don’t install any of them from an unofficial download site.
Which one should a family pick?
Start from the question you want answered.
- Where is the car, and how is it being driven? A location app or a plug-in answers that.
- Was the phone in their hand, and can I see it? A camera that saves clips, like TruceVision, answers that, and the trade is footage of your teen.
- Did the driver notice, in the moment, that their eyes had been away too long? That’s what AutoSight One is built for, without video.
Phones aren’t the whole story: police recorded phone use in about 14% of fatal crashes in 2024 where a driver was distracted.[6] A passenger, the center screen or something on the floor pulls the eyes away too. And built-in driver monitoring comes only in some newer cars; the average car on U.S. roads is 12.8 years old.[7] Many families will use more than one tool: a location app for where, and AutoSight for the eyes. Will my teen feel watched?
How we compared
Everything about other products comes from their makers’ own pages, read on October 31, 2026, except HeyPolo, where the only source we found is a sponsored article it paid for, and the list of discontinued apps, which is Damoov’s. Where a page doesn’t say something, the table says “not described” rather than guessing. Products and prices change; check each maker’s site before you buy. We make AutoSight One, so read this with that in mind.