How is Openroad free?

March 9, 2021

Great question! Nothing is ever free, right? Well, today is your lucky day. Openroad is the free app that can save your life. It detects crashes and gets you help from emergency responders. All free. Free, free, free.


Why? From the very beginning, our mission has been to make roads safer for all. With Openroad’s crash detection and emergency response, we think we can save thousands of lives a year. But how do you get it into as many people’s hands as possible? You make it free and give it to everyone.


So that’s what we did. Openroad is free to download and use – for as long as you like. You can download it, turn it on, and forget about it (we hope you never have to use the product). You’ll never be charged. As far as we know, there is no other free crash detection and emergency response product available.


And, Openroad will be free forever.


But really, how is this possible? Doesn’t all the amazing crash detection technology and emergency responders cost a ton of money? 

You’re right! It does. But other personal safety products focus almost exclusively on consumers like you, so they need to charge for premium features like crash detection and emergency response. Openroad is free because our core business is with large organizations like auto insurers.


We’ve worked for many years, analyzed data from tens of thousands of car crashes, and broken a lot of expensive phones to build flexible technology that can accurately detect a car crash with a phone. It’s so flexible that essentially any app can use this technology to detect crashes.


This is what auto insurers do – they pay us to use the same underlying crash detection technology as Openroad for their own safe driving programs. It helps them protect their customers and it helps us make roads safer for even more people. It also allows us to offer Openroad, and premium features like crash detection and emergency response, for free. (We never share personal Openroad customer data with auto insurers.)


What about paid features?

We might offer some paid features in the future. But they’ll be in addition to the crash detection and emergency response features you depend on today. The crash detection and response features you have today will always be free, no matter what the other offerings are.


What if we want to pay?

We love you for that! This means we’re doing our job – making a product that you love and trust. The best way to “pay” is to share Openroad with your friends and family and leave us a review in the App Store. Sharing your love for Openroad helps spread the word and protect more people on the road. That’s what we all want in the end, right?


Rafi Finegold

Back To Blog