If you’ve ever wondered why the Road Angel Pure range is trusted by serious drivers, while mobile apps get…(ahem) mixed reviews, we decided to go straight to the source.
So we sat down with Seamus Lecky, Road Angel’s Head of Data Accuracy, the man who vets the database team and manages and oversees the data behind every alert Pure delivers.
His team is the reason drivers trust Pure more than any app.
And after five minutes with him, you’ll understand why.
Q: Seamus, let’s start simple: why isn’t a mobile app enough?
Seamus:
Because most apps rely on the wrong thing — the crowd.
If the last person didn’t report something, or their signal dropped, or they weren’t paying attention, the data you get is already out of date.
Apps depend on user behaviour.
Pure depends on professional verification.
That’s the difference.
Q: So where does Pure’s data actually come from?
Seamus:
Three places — and each one matters.
1. HERE Technologies
A world-leading digital mapping provider.
This is our base layer — the foundation Pure builds on.
2. National Highways
This gives us real-time Smart Motorway information:
- variable speed limits
- lane closures
- congestion
- incidents
- roadworks
If it changes, we know.
3. Our On-Road Mapping Team
This is the part people never realise.
We’ve been running a dedicated mapping team for more than 25 years.
Our drivers cover hundreds of thousands of miles every year.
If a user flags an issue, we send someone out physically to check it.
No app on the market does that.
None.
They can’t.
There are more sources….
Q: That’s a big difference from apps that just crowdsource location data.
Seamus:
Exactly.
Apps wait for users (crowd) reports.
Pure only alerts to verified data.
If a camera moves, if signage changes, if a Smart Motorway variable limit updates — we confirm it on the ground.
Not “estimated”.
Not “reported”.
Confirmed.
Q: What does that mean for the driver?
Seamus:
It means confidence.
It means your alerts are based on truth, not guesses.
Drivers don’t need “probably”. They need “yes or no”.
And Pure gives them that certainty.
Q: And what about reliability? Apps can be a bit… temperamental.
Seamus:
That’s because apps depend on your phone:
- Battery
- Signal
- Data strength
- GPS drift
- App conflicts
- Notifications
- Whether you opened it at all
Pure bypasses all of that.
It’s dedicated hardware doing one job and crucially, it is doing it properly!
Coz when you’re driving at speed, you don’t want your phone deciding it’s too hot, too busy, or too distracted to alert you!
Q: Bottom line Seamus, what sets the Pure range apart?
Seamus:
Simple.
Apps guess.
Pure knows.
Because Pure is built on:
HERE mapping National Highways live data 25+ years of road-tested, physically verified accuracy
That’s why serious drivers switch — and never go back.
So you want to dive deeper?
Seamus explains all of this — and more — in his short video series on the Road Angel YouTube channel.
Check out the playlist for a deeper look into how Pure works, why accuracy matters, and how his team keeps the UK’s most reliable road safety database up to date.
