The full walkthrough
From mounting the phone to the PASS or FAIL — here is exactly what ClutchUp does, what it marks, and what you stay in control of.
Everything is set up before you move. You never touch the app while driving.
Mount the phone, pick a free drive or a guided route, and choose your analysis mode. All of it happens before you set off.
With mirror checks on, ClutchUp runs a quick road check to confirm the mount, then a face check and a short mirror calibration — so you know the framing is right before you move.
Start recording and drive normally — you never touch the app. Drives are capped at 40 minutes; at the cap the drive ends itself and the marking begins.
End the drive, confirm any uncertain mirror checks, and the reveal lands: PASS or FAIL, your score, and every fault — while it's all still fresh.
Structure when you want it, freedom when you don't.
Drive wherever you were going anyway — the shops, a lesson route, a practice loop. ClutchUp records the whole thing and spots the junctions from open map data as you go, so mirror-check windows still open at the right moments and the drive is marked in full.
A practice loop planned from your location, with the features you choose — length (15 to 40 minutes), roundabouts, dual carriageways, quieter streets. Because ClutchUp planned the route, it knows each turn in advance and opens its mirror-check window at exactly the right moment.
Analysis modes
You pick a mode before every single drive, and camera use is entirely optional. Your choice is shown during the drive and stated on your debrief, so if a section is missing you always know why.
Thirty seconds of setup that stops you finishing a drive and finding the camera was pointing at the ceiling.
Before a mirror-checks drive, ClutchUp takes a single still through the rear camera to confirm the phone is actually mounted facing the road, and tells you how to adjust the mount if not. Once the drive starts, the rear camera is never used again.
Then the front camera confirms it can actually see you, and a short calibration has you glance at each mirror once so the detection knows your head positions. Snapshots are analysed in memory and discarded immediately — nothing is stored or uploaded. If the camera can't see you, you can still drive in Sensors only.
Any solid windscreen or vent mount works. If you haven't got one yet, here's the mount we recommend.
Mirror checks
As you approach a turn, the app opens a short window — around twenty seconds at most, and capped per drive — and measures head movement on-device to see whether you made a real mirror check.
Every drive ends in a PASS or FAIL, scored against the real test's pass rules — any serious or dangerous fault fails it, and so do more than 15 minors. Not an official assessment, and all the more useful for being honest.
PASS or FAIL first, then a 0–100 score, with faults counted the way the real test counts them — minor, serious, dangerous — so the language is familiar long before test day.
Braking and acceleration, use of speed, cornering, progress and hesitation, and your mirror checks — each with the moments in your drive that produced the mark.
A written debrief names every fault, pins it on the route map, and picks the top priorities for your next drive — drawn only from what actually happened.
Automated marking can be wrong. It may miss faults, flag faults that didn't happen, or mis-estimate a speed. Treat it as a learning aid and always defer to your instructor, your supervising driver, the Highway Code and the law. For what actually ends tests, see the DVSA's most common faults.
Mirror-check analysis happens on your phone, using Apple's on-device Vision framework to measure head movement. No facial images are ever uploaded or transmitted. Only derived results leave the device — whether a check was detected, head-turn angle summaries, timestamps and the turn's location.
The rear camera is used exactly once, before the drive, for the road check — nothing is captured through it while you drive. Review clips are silent (audio is never recorded), stay on your phone, and are deleted once reviewed — within 48 hours at most. And if you'd rather no camera opened at all, Sensors only scores your drive in full without one.
ClutchUp is completely free — every drive, verdict, written debrief and guided route, with no subscription and no in-app purchases.
iPhone only — not yet available on Android.
ClutchUp is a learning aid and does not replace a qualified driving instructor. Always drive safely and legally. Not affiliated with the DVSA.