A startup in Utah has found a way to stop drivers from using cell phones to talk and text while driving. Key2safedriving has developed a jamming feature for the car key that stops a cell phone when the car is in drive mode.
The key, which wirelessly connects to the cell phone with Bluetooth or RFID technology, goes into drive mode when placed in the ignition. Once the car stops and the key is removed, a signal is sent to the phone to restore normal use.
If the driver attempts to use the cell phone while the key is in the ignition, the driver receives this message: “Stop. Your vehicle is currently in driving mode. Please do not talk while driving.”
Nearly one million passenger cars are driven in the U.S. each day by people using cell phones, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Using the cell phone degrades driving performance, resulting in slower reaction times, slower driving speeds, and increased instances of attention lapses, according to research by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Inventors Wallace Curry and Xuesong Zhou developed the product after Curry’s experience led him to do the research. Curry, a urologist, said his interest came from two factors — the hospital always contacting him while driving and because he saw a teenager texting while driving, which reminded him of his own teenage daughters.
“I thought, this is crazy, there has got to be something to stop this, because not only is she putting people at risk, but so was I,” Curry said. “It struck me pretty hard that something should be done.”
Curry and Zhou, a specialist in intelligent transportation systems, came up with the idea to block cell-phone use with an ignition key.
Several states already prohibit cell-phone use while driving, including California,…