LatinaLista —
Campaign: Unitá – the safe driving app
An android driving app designed to reduce distractions caused by smart phones.
“At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving, a number that has held steady since 2010.” (NOPUS)
“Engaging in visual-manual subtasks (such as reaching for a phone, dialing and texting) associated with the use of hand-held phones and other portable devices increased the risk of getting into a crash by three times.” (VTTI)
“Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that’s enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded.” (2009, VTTI)
“Headset cell phone use is not substantially safer than hand-held use.” (VTTI)
The Idea for the app is simply to make a functional app with all the features needed to keep drivers safe by reducing the temptation of notifications from their phone, and yet it will not completely disable the phone where it counts in case of emergency.
The app silences the phone when driving is detected by either GPS on the phone or through a Bluetooth device. All notification sounds and ringers are silenced by the app. Yet, potentially urgent texts and calls are responded to with a driving message and an emergency code.
The emergency code bypasses the silencing app to alert the driver of a real emergency.
The campaign’s goal is $24,000 and ends September 2.
