She says she has received amber ratings when commuting to Belfast for work and a red score when she had to brake sharply on a country road.
In comparison, when her parents have driven the vehicle manually, they received green scores.
“I know I’m not a dangerous driver, but there is a difference whenever I drive. I’ll always get knocked down a bit on the smoothness,” she says.
“I worry because the scheme is so great. For people to be kicked off just because of small things that aren’t their fault, it would be such a big let-down to a lot of disabled people.”
Fletcher says this was not something Motability was aware of, but it would look into and would continue to gather information over the coming months.
As well as the black box, Motability has introduced recommendations that drivers take a break every hour and aim not to do more than six journeys a day. If that is exceeded, the driver will receive a red score, but it will not impact their lease.
It has also halved the number of miles drivers can make each year before they pay an excess.
Drivers will now be able to drive 10,000 miles before paying 25p on any miles travelled over that limit. Previously, the mileage was 20,000 with an excess of 5p a mile.
Motability says its average drives clock up 7,500 miles a year and Scotland’s version of the scheme was still considering the cap.
But for Day, the recommendations are frustrating and impede his independence.
“I live in rural Cornwall, everything is an hour away,” he says.
“If I wanted to go to London, which is where the majority of my work is, and I had to stop every hour, I couldn’t get to work. It’s just madness.”
Even so, he is excited for the “freedom and access to the world” his new vehicle on the scheme will give him.
“I wouldn’t be able to go to work without mine,” he says. “I wouldn’t be able to have a social life.”
A government spokesperson said Motability was able to implement the new black box changes as it is an “independent scheme”.
They added that customers would “still be able to lease a car with just their qualifying disability benefit, and there will still be cars available through the scheme which require no advance payment”, following the changes announced in the Budget.
