Mexican Media Brands
Chevy Calls Out Distracted Drivers
General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet unit is launching a smartphone app to help remind drivers not to pick up their phones while driving.
Share
General Motors Co.’s Chevrolet unit is launching a smartphone app to help remind drivers not to pick up their phones while driving.
The “Call Me Out” app uses a phone's accelerometer and GPS to detect when it is physically picked up while traveling faster than 5 mph. The system plays personalized messages—along with a graphic of a wagging finger—recorded by friends or family telling drivers to put their phones down and pay attention to driving.
There's also a scoreboard and national rankings based on how often a person handles their phone while driving. The app is available for free from the Google Play store for Android devices.
The idea for the app came from a “hackathon” event Chevrolet hosted in October 2016 at Wayne State University in Detroit. Chevy says the system can be used in any vehicle, including competing makes and models.
An estimated 481,000 Americans use their phones while driving during daylight hours, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency says there were 3,450 fatalities related to distracted driving (including cell phones and other diversions) in the U.S. in 2016.RELATED CONTENT
-
Choosing the Right Fasteners for Automotive
PennEngineering makes hundreds of different fasteners for the automotive industry with standard and custom products as well as automated assembly solutions. Discover how they’re used and how to select the right one. (Sponsored Content)
-
Cobots: 14 Things You Need to Know
What jobs do cobots do well? How is a cobot programmed? What’s the ROI? We asked these questions and more to four of the leading suppliers of cobots.
-
Robotic Exoskeleton Amplifies Human Strength
The Sarcos Guardian XO Max full-body, all-electric exoskeleton features strength amplification of up to 20 to 1, making 200 pounds—the suit’s upper limit—feel like 10 pounds for the user.
