More and more people are using smartphone apps and it seems there is an app for everything. We’ve even found safe driving apps for smartphones that could earn you a discount on your car insurance premium. Read on to see our picks and overviews of these safe driving apps.

What is a safe driving smartphone app?

These are apps that perform a function or include a feature that allows you to be a safer driver. They can cut down distracted driving, or they can monitor the speed of your vehicle to let you know when you’re driving too fast. As cell phone /smartphone use in the car continues to be a leading cause of accidents, it makes sense to focus on safe driving. Here are our top picks.

Drive Safe.ly

This safe driving smartphone app is mentioned just about everywhere. It is well reviewed by experts such as PCMag and appears to be the top free app on the market. This app reads your text, Facebook messages, and tweets to you while you drive so that you can focus on actually driving. Our only concern is that it could present some awkward moments if there’s someone else in the car with you.

Learn more about DriveSafe.ly – The app to stop distracted driving.

Native “Driving Mode” cell phone apps

Many cell phone carriers offer a driving mode app on the cell phones they sell. Some are free and some cost a monthly subscription fee. Pretty much all of these apps use the accelerometer in your cellphone to determine how fast your car is moving. Once it sees that the car is moving more than 5-10mph it disables calls and texts. The feature can be overridden, but the override is logged so that parents can tell when their kids are using their phones while driving. For the small fees, this is a small price to pay to ensure teens are safe drivers. It’s not a bad idea for adults either.

Drive Scribe

This app has great potential, but the hard part is getting people to actually use it. This safe driving app actually monitors how you drive and offers tips and information. It knows how fast you are going and will warn you when you are speeding, for example. This app is free and, here’s the best part, you can actually earn gift cards as a reward for being a safe driver.

This is just the beginning

There are far more safe driving apps out there than just this small batch. We recommend going to your smart phone’s app store and searching for “safe driving apps” to find apps that are compatible with you phone. There are also non-cell phone related devices that offer a number of safe driving features that are worth checking out as well. Check back soon for more ways to stay safe.