Everyone recognizes texting while driving is a poor suggestion. It threatens, foolish, and also prohibited. However that doesn’t stop people from doing it. Actually, texting while driving has ended up being the leading reason of fatality for young adults … as well as grownups. In 2011, practically a quarter (23 percent) of all auto accident entailed cellphones– 1.3 million mishaps.
Here’s why: Texting takes a vehicle driver’s eyes off the roadway for a minimum of 5 seconds, and typically much longer. However if you’re driving at 55 miles per hour, you’ll cover the size of a football area in five secs … without taking a look at the road. All examples can happen: Other autos quit or change lanes, individuals enter the roadway, mishaps occur up in advance … as well as if a motorist isn’t knowledgeable about what’s coming, she or he can get involved in actual problem. Texting makes crashing as much as 23 times most likely.
So a group of teenagers that call themselves the Inventioneers decided to do something regarding this expanding as well as unsafe trouble. They developed the SMARTwheel ™, a gadget that fits on a steering wheel as well as keeps track of a driver’s hand settings. The name is an acronym for Safe Vehicle driver Alert for Restricting Texting, Tweeting, Keying, Touchscreens, Takeout as well as Touch-up. (No consuming or fixing your make-up while driving, either!)
Exactly how it works: The SMARTwheel senses if you take one or both hands off the wheel for more than a really short time, and it gives immediate sound and also aesthetic comments.
It also logs dangerous driving and also can be set to send a record of someone’s driving to other people, such as parents, employers, educators, and also– for people with extremely poor driving records– parole policemans. The gadget has actually been examined at MIT and also at the White Home, where it obtained a green light from Head of state Obama.
This isn’t the first time the New Hampshire teenagers have designed something valuable. They’ve additionally developed a self-powered water filtration system and an one-of-a-kind biofuel generator.
