My 15-year-old daughter just got her learner’s permit, so when I was pitched a new gadget tailored to teen drivers, I was intrigued. The Miles Plug is a small device that plugs into your car’s OBD-II port and monitors location, driving habits, and vehicle health, along with emergency accident response and roadside assistance.

The idea is that knowing all these things should help me feel more comfortable when my daughter starts driving alone. I tested the (now discontinued) Ring Car Cam when my son was learning to drive, but he hated it and refused to turn it on; I wondered if the Miles could provide the same peace of mind without feeling as intrusive.

Miles was developed by cofounders Matt McGovren and Kit Klein, who have a solid smart home pedigree. They brought combined experience from Amazon (Ring and Blink), Ubiquiti’s smart home line, and other companies. “We built Miles to support teens and parents together, and keep them on the same team,” said McGovren in a press release. “Parents and teens see the same trips and the same alerts with nothing hidden, building trust instead of suspicion.”

While the prices seem steep, McGovren’s pitch is that it covers several services you might already be paying for: “You could piece together a roadside service, a family tracking service … and then you’re looking at $30, $40 a month,” he said in an interview with The Verge. And, unlike your car’s own branded app, Miles isn’t selling your data. Automakers have been caught collecting and selling driving data, with GM being banned from selling data to brokers for five years.

I set up Miles in my 2014 Toyota Highlander I nicknamed Tanya and have been using it for a couple of days. Setup was simple, and the app is clean, uncluttered, and easy to follow. It logs every trip with route, distance, time, and driver initials (I haven’t had my daughter download the app yet; I’m interested to see whose phones it connects to when we’re both in the car). Arrived- and left-home alerts came through promptly, and the events tab flagged hard acceleration and a cluster of three hard-braking alerts when I was running a little late to collect my daughter from work.

I like the home card, which shows a vehicle health summary: engine OK, fuel 63%, battery 13.5V, and the odometer reading. I played with the Miles Mechanic chatbot and asked how my car is and what upcoming maintenance is due; it answered in plain English, telling me the cabin air filter is due at about 140,000 miles, and the oil change and tire rotation at 142,500.