Distracted driving is a big deal. In 2012 421,000 people were injured as a result of distracted driving. The biggest distraction to a driver is a smartphone. You may be shocked to hear this but a 35 year old is just as likely to get into an accident because of distracted driving as a teenager.
There are several companies, startups and apps trying to help curb distracted driving. There are apps that will lock the phone while the vehicle is in motion. There are systems that will alert a parent if a teenager is texting and driving and there are systems that will totally disable a phone while it’s in the car.
Some of these solutions prevent texting and driving or even talking and driving without the use of a hands free kit, but they still don’t stop emailing while driving, Facebooking while driving, Snapchatting while driving or any host of dozens of apps that take people’s attention away from the road.
Well what if there was a system that tethered a phone to a cradle and out of the driver’s hand while the vehicle is in motion.
Enter Buoy, a product from DNJ Innovations in Dallas Texas that wants to do just that.
Buoy is a dash mountable stand for a smartphone. While the phone is in the stand everything is normal. The driver can make or take hands free calls and even use speech to text to text hands free. However if that phone goes out of the cradle and into the driver’s hand a proximity sensor knows it and starts to alert the driver. These alerts gradually get louder and more effective, the same way a seatbelt sensor does.
The folks at DNJ Innovations have taken an entirely new approach to the distracted driving issue. Outside of creating some kind of key locked case, you know like a gun locker when you go into certain buildings, the Buoy may be the best way.
