Helping people go places
Toyota has announced it is developing a wearable device, under the name Project Blaid, for the blind and visually impaired to aid in indoor navigation and mobility. The device, which Toyota says will help fill in the gap left by canes, dogs and basic GPS devices, is designed to be worn around a user’s shoulders and is equipped with cameras to detect their surroundings and communicate the information to them through sound or vibration. The system aims to inform users of important points, such as restrooms, escalators, stairs and doors in indoor spaces like office buildings and shopping malls, Toyota said. Users will be able to interact with the device through speech and physical buttons. Toyota said it is launching an employee engagement campaign to collect videos of common indoor landmarks to be used to teach the device to recognize those landmarks. For more information visit http://www.massdevice.com/toyota-developing-wearable-navigation-device-blind/.
Hashtag #whiledriving
It’s one thing to multi-task at home or at work – but not while driving. Erie Insurance recently analyzed social media data to gain insight into what drivers are doing behind the wheel. The company analyzed Twitter and Instagram posts that came from mobile devices and used the popular hashtag #whiledriving. The top five hashtags used in tandem with #whiledriving included clouds, sunset, sky, nature and sun, strongly suggesting that people are snapping pictures of beautiful scenery and posting them to social media, while at the same time operating their vehicles. The ERIE hashtag analysis also found that men are more likely to drive distracted than women: 55 percent of #whiledriving posts came from men, and 45 percent from women. These findings were based on a review of 90 days of social media tracking data purchased from the analytics firm Keyhole. The data collected were from iPhones, iPads and Androids that had their location services turned on.
The company acknowledged that the behaviors suggested by the hashtag analysis show some parallels with a prior Erie Insurance study of police data, which found that daydreaming is the greatest cause of distraction and fatal car crashes. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 3,179 people were killed and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in 2014 alone.
The top 10 hashtags used in conjunction with #whiledriving were:
- Clouds
- Sunset
- Sky
- Nature
- Sun
- Nofilter
- Landscape
- Car
- Driving
- Selfie
The top U.S. states with the most posts using #whiledriving were:
- California
- Florida
- Texas
- South Carolina
- New York
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- Oregon
- Colorado
- Nevada
Taking actions against distracted driving
In response to recent findings about distracted driving and fatal car crashes, some state leaders are taking action. New York State Senator Terrence Murphy (R-Westchester) and Assembly Assistant Speaker Felix Ortiz (D-Kings), together with awareness organization Distracted Operators Risk Casualties (DORCs), recently announced a joint effort designed to protect people from injuries caused by distracted driving. Senator Murphy and Assemblyman Ortiz have introduced a bipartisan state bill, making New York the first state to attempt a distracted driving policy solution that enables police to examine phones at an accident site in a way that avoids seeing drivers’ personal data. DORCs co-founder Ben Lieberman, a staunch advocate against distracted driving since he and his family lost their 19-year-old son, Evan, in a 2011 collision caused by a distracted driver, has been working closely with Senator Murphy and Assemblyman Ortiz to implement the new law, known as Evan’s Law. For weeks following the crash that resulted in Evan’s death, the driver’s phone was sitting in a junkyard, and police never retrieved the phone or phone records. Through his own civil lawsuit, Lieberman subpoenaed the phone records and discovered the driver had been texting while he was driving, leading up to the crash. A key part of the legislation involves new Textalyzer technology, which will allow officers to detect whether or not the device was being used around the time of a crash, but will not provide access to any content — keeping conversations, contacts, numbers, photos, and application data private. (Cellebrite, a company that develops mobile device forensics solutions, is developing this capability.) According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated. Despite this fact, and despite knowledge of the risk to themselves and others, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that 67 percent of drivers still use their mobile phones while behind the wheel.
EV charging taking hold
The growing need to reduce carbon emissions is pushing electric vehicle charging stations market along with increasing use of electric vehicles, government subsidies and incentives according to a new research report. It forecasts the market to reach $12.61 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 29.8 percent from 2016 to 2022. The complete report on the global electric vehicle charging stations market profiles 13 companies and is available at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/518938-electric-vehicle-charging-stations-market-by-charging-station-ac-charging-station-dc-charging-station-inductive-charging-station-connector-type-chademo-ccs-others-location-public-private-and-geography-global-trend-and-forecast-to-2022.html. The growth of the electric vehicle charging stations market is attributed to significant incentives offered by the Chinese government for vehicle buyers and tightening emission regulations. Further, other countries such as South Korea and India are taking initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the use of electric vehicles. The electric vehicle charging stations market for inductive charging stations expected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2016 and 2022.
Did you know your car can save your life?
The National Automobile Dealers Association recently announced a partnership with the MyCarDoesWhat campaign – a research-driven campaign created by the National Safety Council and the University of Iowa to help raise awareness of new safety features in vehicles, which can help prevent crashes and reduce deaths and injuries. Research conducted by the University of Iowa shows that most consumers are unsure about how potentially life-saving vehicle safety features work. It also suggests that if consumers are not introduced to one of these new safety features within the first 90 days of vehicle ownership, they are very unlikely to fully and properly utilize these features. The MyCarDoesWhat campaign was created to educate consumers about how to best interact with these safety features to promote safer driving experiences.