Driving safety- do you txt & drive?
A big emerging technology I was eager to see at CES was products that strive to make txting while driving safer. OK, safer isn’t the right word- txting while driving isn’t safe- products that strive to balance communicating while on the road with safety.
Taser (the company that produces the non-lethal shocking device used by law enforcement) is branching out into technology protection as well. I saw demos of 2 products that seem to be very well thought out, and could be a huge asset to parents.
The first is their Driver Protector. Aimed at parents of kids age 15-18, it strives to cut down on kids’ ability to use their phone while driving. (I couldn’t help thinking this should be mandatory for drivers beyond 18 as well! I personally can remember at least 2 or 3 near misses when the person who almost ran into me was starting down at a cell phone.)
Driver Protector works only with certain smartphones- BlackBerry, Android, etc- which the company figures most kids are begging their parents for anyway. It takes that device and, through a device that connects to a car’s circuitry, tells that phone when it can and can’t operate certain functions. For example, once the car is moving, the phone locks and only 3 options are available on the screen: favorites (to call certain pre-programmed numbers), voice dial and request exemption (to call mom or dad and tell them someone else is driving, at which point mom or dad can remotely unlock the phone).
Taser (the company that produces the non-lethal shocking device used by law enforcement) is branching out into technology protection as well. I saw demos of 2 products that seem to be very well thought out, and could be a huge asset to parents.
The first is their Driver Protector. Aimed at parents of kids age 15-18, it strives to cut down on kids’ ability to use their phone while driving. (I couldn’t help thinking this should be mandatory for drivers beyond 18 as well! I personally can remember at least 2 or 3 near misses when the person who almost ran into me was starting down at a cell phone.)
Driver Protector works only with certain smartphones- BlackBerry, Android, etc- which the company figures most kids are begging their parents for anyway. It takes that device and, through a device that connects to a car’s circuitry, tells that phone when it can and can’t operate certain functions. For example, once the car is moving, the phone locks and only 3 options are available on the screen: favorites (to call certain pre-programmed numbers), voice dial and request exemption (to call mom or dad and tell them someone else is driving, at which point mom or dad can remotely unlock the phone).
Taser said they studied other solutions to driver distraction and found many of them to be either too strong or too weak. Either the phone was completely disabled, which frustrates users because they can’t do anything with the phone, or it was too easy to bypass the safeguards by overriding them. They sought to strike a balance where the phone is still usable for parts that can be made safe while driving.
Driver Protector will be released later in the spring, with final pricing TBD, but expect about $200-300 for the device that connects to your car to monitor whether it’s moving, and then $10-30 / month.
Taser’s other new product speaks to parents who have ever wanted to give their child a cell phone for the convenience of being able to reach them anytime, but didn’t want them to be able to use all it’s features at all times. Until now, it was pretty much an all or nothing proposition. Either you give them the phone, and take the risk they could start txting 5,000 times each month, not only running up your phone bill but probably not studying too hard for school while doing that, or you didn’t. Taser’s Mobile Protector seeks to give logical parental controls for your kid’s cell phone.
Again, only working with smartphones, it is aimed at the first time a child gets a cell phone, amazingly 8-12 years old, according to the company. (Why an 8 year old needs a BlackBerry is another story. If there was a way this product could work on a plain phone, I think it would be even more beneficial. Due to the technology that goes into it, sadly, it only works on smartphones.) So, 8 year olds toting BlackBerries aside, this is a very innovative product.
It has an app that is installed on both the parent’s & the kid’s smartphone which, essentially, first routes all communication to the parent’s phone. For example, the first time your child receives a txt from a certain number, it first routes to the parent’s phone. The parent can then decide if that txt is safe to be allowed through. Naturally, to do this every time the kid gets a txt is pretty cumbersome, so you can assign certain numbers “safe” status. In other words, all txts from Uncle Mike (who you trust) are allowed through automatically, but all txts from your child’s friend Rodney (who you never trusted anyway) are still routed to you.
There is a similar functionality to voice calls as well. Calls can be first routed to the parent’s phone, and again, safe ones are allowed through. Obviously for working parents this can become a bit cumbersome, but there is a desktop version of the parent’s monitoring app which can run on the parent’s work computer.
A few other great features of Mobile Protector… it automatically screens txts for a predetermined list of problematic words (based on categories like sexual content, drugs, etc) and alerts you if those words are used. Txts are monitored even from people you have put on the “safe” list and the txts go directly to the kid’s phone. Another feature is that each time a call is made or received, or txt made or received, Taser’s system takes a GPS snapshot of where the communication occurred. This can be helpful in locating a child, should that need arise. They’re quick to point out this isn’t a monitoring device- those GPS locations are only revealed with police involvement in a missing person’s case.
All in all, Mobile Protector seeks to allow parents to give their kids a phone they can use for they parts they want, rather than all or nothing. It all felt a little Big Brother-ish at first, but the company seems to have gone to some lengths to balance parental control with kid’s phone needs. With some of the scary stats the company cited (more than 1/3rd of teenagers admit to sending naked pictures of themselves using their phone, 40% of them have been bullied through the phone, 1 in 5 has been sexually solicited online, 20% regularly use their phone to engage in “sexting”) I’m guessing there will be a version of mobile protector for teens 13-18 as well very soon. And let’s also hope that LG’s “Give It A Ponder” campaign is around for a while!
Pricing hasn’t been announced for Mobile Protector either, but will likely be a monthly service cost of aprx $30 / month. With Mobile Protector and Driver Protector, maybe you’ll feel more comfortable with your child having a smartphone.
While we’
re on the topic of driver safety and distraction while driving, let me tell you about the few minutes I spent learning about how much research goes into driver safety from Ford. Ford made a lot of headlines at CES unveiling upgrades to their Sync system, which allows drivers to connect more gadgets to the car to use while driving. The highlights were the ability to have the car read you incoming tweets from Twitter while driving and the ability to listen to Pandora & Stitcher internet radio in the car. Many of the articles announcing these new technologies pointed out driver safety concerns, basically theorizing that the more technology we have in the car, the less safe we are while driving.
I love technology, and I love cars, so I was particularly excited to speak with Ford about their new gadgets, and what steps they take to ensure driver safety. I spent a few minutes with Ed Cadagin from Ford’s Auto Safety Office, who has been working on driver distraction for 10 years. He told me about Ford’s ongoing commitment to driver safety in the wake of explosive wireless use in cars.
He pointed to 7 million miles of road driving data from a VTTI (Virginia Tech Transportation Institute) study that Ford relies heavily on to determine the causes of accidents, and design their technology appropriately. Interestingly, talking on your phone while driving is only slightly more distracting than driving alone- it’s the dialing or answering calls part that gets people in trouble. (Also, “personal grooming” was more than double as distracting a talking on the phone.)
Ford also has copious amounts of data from their Eyes on Road Research where average Ford employees drive in a simulator and are monitored while they execute typical driving tasks. This is a big foundation for their Sync system where voice commands allow typical tasks (like playing a certain song on your iPod or inputting a navigation destination) to cut down how long your eyes are off the road by 90% or more.
These 2 studies, as well as some Federal Government research has led Ford to institute a few basic guidelines for all their in-car technology. For example, a single glance off the road can only be 2 seconds maximum. Whether for inputting a navigation address or changing a radio station, 2 seconds max. This means Ford has locked out the majority of navigation function while the car is moving. You cannot enter a new address or point of interest, you must choose from a previous destination or use Sync to input it by voice command.
It’s worth pointing out that this is Ford’s own analysis and guidelines. Other car manufacturers do their own thing. Honda, for example, allows full use of it’s navigation system while driving. Ford says that’s their choice, they would rather err on the side of safety based on their findings. Now, I did ask if any thought had been given to allowing a passenger to input a destination while the car was moving, and Mr Cadagin said they had considered that, but ultimately decided against it. He said people could put a suitcase on the front seat to override it, then. I had to chuckle as I heard that, and countered that perhaps there should be some balance between how the majority of people would likely benefit from a feature like that, and if a few, let’s call them knuckleheads, choose to drive around with a suitcase in their front seat, well, then, that’s their prerogative.
Another guideline Mr Cadagin shared was that all visual displays in Ford vehicles had to be at 30 degrees or above on the dash. That was the point at which Ford determined people could see brake lights ahead of them in their peripheral vision. This guideline led Ford to redesign all of their dashboards (not a cheap undertaking, he pointed out) to be 30 degree compliant.
Along with the Twitter, Pandora, Stitcher announcements, Ford will also feature more technology additions to their cars. You will be able to search for directions on Mapquest, then send your route to your car (conveniently Microsoft is the company behind both Mapquest and Ford’s Sync technology), and for sports fans, once you provide an internet connection for your Ford, you can set the system to keep you updated on your favorite sports team scores as they play!
In any event, I was impressed to learn the amount of research that goes into designing in-car tech at Ford. While not as sexy as the technology itself, it’s nice to hear these devices aren’t just being crammed into cars as fast as they can be produced. Ford’s use of naturalistic, real world driving research will hopefully make their cars safer for the people excited to use their new tech features.
--Peter
Driver Protector will be released later in the spring, with final pricing TBD, but expect about $200-300 for the device that connects to your car to monitor whether it’s moving, and then $10-30 / month.
Taser’s other new product speaks to parents who have ever wanted to give their child a cell phone for the convenience of being able to reach them anytime, but didn’t want them to be able to use all it’s features at all times. Until now, it was pretty much an all or nothing proposition. Either you give them the phone, and take the risk they could start txting 5,000 times each month, not only running up your phone bill but probably not studying too hard for school while doing that, or you didn’t. Taser’s Mobile Protector seeks to give logical parental controls for your kid’s cell phone.
Again, only working with smartphones, it is aimed at the first time a child gets a cell phone, amazingly 8-12 years old, according to the company. (Why an 8 year old needs a BlackBerry is another story. If there was a way this product could work on a plain phone, I think it would be even more beneficial. Due to the technology that goes into it, sadly, it only works on smartphones.) So, 8 year olds toting BlackBerries aside, this is a very innovative product.
It has an app that is installed on both the parent’s & the kid’s smartphone which, essentially, first routes all communication to the parent’s phone. For example, the first time your child receives a txt from a certain number, it first routes to the parent’s phone. The parent can then decide if that txt is safe to be allowed through. Naturally, to do this every time the kid gets a txt is pretty cumbersome, so you can assign certain numbers “safe” status. In other words, all txts from Uncle Mike (who you trust) are allowed through automatically, but all txts from your child’s friend Rodney (who you never trusted anyway) are still routed to you.
There is a similar functionality to voice calls as well. Calls can be first routed to the parent’s phone, and again, safe ones are allowed through. Obviously for working parents this can become a bit cumbersome, but there is a desktop version of the parent’s monitoring app which can run on the parent’s work computer.
A few other great features of Mobile Protector… it automatically screens txts for a predetermined list of problematic words (based on categories like sexual content, drugs, etc) and alerts you if those words are used. Txts are monitored even from people you have put on the “safe” list and the txts go directly to the kid’s phone. Another feature is that each time a call is made or received, or txt made or received, Taser’s system takes a GPS snapshot of where the communication occurred. This can be helpful in locating a child, should that need arise. They’re quick to point out this isn’t a monitoring device- those GPS locations are only revealed with police involvement in a missing person’s case.
All in all, Mobile Protector seeks to allow parents to give their kids a phone they can use for they parts they want, rather than all or nothing. It all felt a little Big Brother-ish at first, but the company seems to have gone to some lengths to balance parental control with kid’s phone needs. With some of the scary stats the company cited (more than 1/3rd of teenagers admit to sending naked pictures of themselves using their phone, 40% of them have been bullied through the phone, 1 in 5 has been sexually solicited online, 20% regularly use their phone to engage in “sexting”) I’m guessing there will be a version of mobile protector for teens 13-18 as well very soon. And let’s also hope that LG’s “Give It A Ponder” campaign is around for a while!
Pricing hasn’t been announced for Mobile Protector either, but will likely be a monthly service cost of aprx $30 / month. With Mobile Protector and Driver Protector, maybe you’ll feel more comfortable with your child having a smartphone.
While we’
re on the topic of driver safety and distraction while driving, let me tell you about the few minutes I spent learning about how much research goes into driver safety from Ford. Ford made a lot of headlines at CES unveiling upgrades to their Sync system, which allows drivers to connect more gadgets to the car to use while driving. The highlights were the ability to have the car read you incoming tweets from Twitter while driving and the ability to listen to Pandora & Stitcher internet radio in the car. Many of the articles announcing these new technologies pointed out driver safety concerns, basically theorizing that the more technology we have in the car, the less safe we are while driving.I love technology, and I love cars, so I was particularly excited to speak with Ford about their new gadgets, and what steps they take to ensure driver safety. I spent a few minutes with Ed Cadagin from Ford’s Auto Safety Office, who has been working on driver distraction for 10 years. He told me about Ford’s ongoing commitment to driver safety in the wake of explosive wireless use in cars.
He pointed to 7 million miles of road driving data from a VTTI (Virginia Tech Transportation Institute) study that Ford relies heavily on to determine the causes of accidents, and design their technology appropriately. Interestingly, talking on your phone while driving is only slightly more distracting than driving alone- it’s the dialing or answering calls part that gets people in trouble. (Also, “personal grooming” was more than double as distracting a talking on the phone.)
Ford also has copious amounts of data from their Eyes on Road Research where average Ford employees drive in a simulator and are monitored while they execute typical driving tasks. This is a big foundation for their Sync system where voice commands allow typical tasks (like playing a certain song on your iPod or inputting a navigation destination) to cut down how long your eyes are off the road by 90% or more.
These 2 studies, as well as some Federal Government research has led Ford to institute a few basic guidelines for all their in-car technology. For example, a single glance off the road can only be 2 seconds maximum. Whether for inputting a navigation address or changing a radio station, 2 seconds max. This means Ford has locked out the majority of navigation function while the car is moving. You cannot enter a new address or point of interest, you must choose from a previous destination or use Sync to input it by voice command.
It’s worth pointing out that this is Ford’s own analysis and guidelines. Other car manufacturers do their own thing. Honda, for example, allows full use of it’s navigation system while driving. Ford says that’s their choice, they would rather err on the side of safety based on their findings. Now, I did ask if any thought had been given to allowing a passenger to input a destination while the car was moving, and Mr Cadagin said they had considered that, but ultimately decided against it. He said people could put a suitcase on the front seat to override it, then. I had to chuckle as I heard that, and countered that perhaps there should be some balance between how the majority of people would likely benefit from a feature like that, and if a few, let’s call them knuckleheads, choose to drive around with a suitcase in their front seat, well, then, that’s their prerogative.
Another guideline Mr Cadagin shared was that all visual displays in Ford vehicles had to be at 30 degrees or above on the dash. That was the point at which Ford determined people could see brake lights ahead of them in their peripheral vision. This guideline led Ford to redesign all of their dashboards (not a cheap undertaking, he pointed out) to be 30 degree compliant.
Along with the Twitter, Pandora, Stitcher announcements, Ford will also feature more technology additions to their cars. You will be able to search for directions on Mapquest, then send your route to your car (conveniently Microsoft is the company behind both Mapquest and Ford’s Sync technology), and for sports fans, once you provide an internet connection for your Ford, you can set the system to keep you updated on your favorite sports team scores as they play!
In any event, I was impressed to learn the amount of research that goes into designing in-car tech at Ford. While not as sexy as the technology itself, it’s nice to hear these devices aren’t just being crammed into cars as fast as they can be produced. Ford’s use of naturalistic, real world driving research will hopefully make their cars safer for the people excited to use their new tech features.
--Peter
Labels: Driver Protector, Ford, Mobile Protector, Taser, txting
This entry was posted by Amber, on Sunday, January 10, 2010. You can
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