Connected Vehicle App Targets Distracted Driving
Burney Simpson
A new smartphone app is growing in popularity because it is designed to help drivers pay attention to driving, a concept that apparently has taken on revolutionary overtones in America.
The EnLighten app from Connected Signals is available for Android and iPhone smartphones.
EnLighten gives drivers at red lights a chiming alert a second or two before a light changes from red to green. The chime is designed to tell the driver it is time to drive the vehicle instead of texting, searching the web, watching a movie, yelling at the kids, eating, focusing on a podcast, or gawking at that hot babe in the vehicle across the lane.
Walnut Creek, Calif., began using the app last week, and its proponents say it works with all 100 of the city’s traffic lights, which are linked to a city traffic control center.
Eugene, Ore.-based Connected Signals says its uses existing communications infrastructure of traffic controllers and vehicles, and combines that with mapping and speed limit information for an area.
That allows EnLighten to review traffic light timing and predict when a light will change.
Connected Signals argues on its website that its technology connects vehicles and traffic infrastructure at “negligible startup and infrastructure costs,” in comparison with U.S. Department of Transportation plans to spend millions to do the same thing with Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC) hardware.
The Contra Costa Transportation Authority, the folks behind the 5,000-acre autonomous vehicle testing grounds in Concord, Calif., contributed to the new launch, along with the city of Walnut Creek, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and Connected Signals.
Connected Signals says its technology is live in Eugene and Portland, Ore., much of Utah, and in Christchurch, New Zealand. Palo Alto, Calif., is scheduled to go live with it this summer. EnLighten is also available for BMW Apps in Eugene and Portland.
Graphic of Portland, Ore., traffic signals from Connected Signals.
