In most states, teens are required to log at least 50 hours of supervised driving before they can take their driver’s license test, including a portion at night. But here’s the thing—this number is a minimum, not a guarantee of readiness. Real safety comes from mastering a wide variety of skills in different driving environments, not just reaching an arbitrary time goal.

The first 12 months of independent driving are the riskiest period of a teen’s life on the road. Many crashes occur because new drivers simply haven’t faced enough varied scenarios to react instinctively when something unexpected happens—like a sudden lane change from another driver, merging into heavy traffic, or navigating in bad weather.

If you break down 50 hours over a 6–12 month permit period, it averages less than an hour per week. And not all hours are created equal—ten hours of calm, empty-neighborhood driving won’t prepare your teen for a high-speed merge or a rainy-night commute. Experts recommend 60–70 hours spread across conditions: city streets, rural roads, highways, night driving, and challenging weather.

That’s where DRVN can make a difference. Unlike generic teen driving apps, DRVN is built specifically for parent teen driving instruction. It uses a Prepare / Drive / Report model to help you target skills systematically:

• Prepare – Review a practice plan before every session so you know exactly which skills to focus on.
• Drive – Use guided prompts from the app to reinforce good habits in real time.
• Report – See a session summary with skill progress, driving time, and your teen’s DRVN Score.

By using safe driving apps for teens like DRVN, parents can log time by skill and condition, ensuring their teen isn’t just meeting the state’s minimum but actually building real-world competence. Many teen driver education apps stop at tracking hours—but DRVN’s skill-based coaching tips and teen driving lesson app design make each drive a learning opportunity.

Parent Tip: Track driving time by type—not just hours total—so you know your teen has experience in every condition they’ll face solo.