SafeDriveZone - A Serious App for a Serious Problem

Getting Started Announcements
#1

Last year, over 400,000 teens were involved in accidents related to Distracted Driving - more specifically - Texting While Driving.

In cooperation with Masterbolt Development of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, SinSep Designs, llc of Birmingham, Alabama is proud to announce the release of SafeDriveZone for Android.

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SafeDriveZone consists of 3 Apps - 1 on a Parent’s device (Phone or Tablet) and 2 on the Driver’s phone or cellular tablet.  The Parent’s App (SafeDriveZone - Parent) is a cross-platform app, developed with the Corona Labs Corona development platform and is currently available for Android systems in Google’s Play store.  An iOS release is currently in process and will be available shortly on the App Store.

The Driver App is an Android Native App that replaces the stock Launcher.  sdzMessenger is a replacement App for the stock Android messenger.

In the Parent App, the Parent determines a threshold speed (along with a series of other parameters) that when reached by the Driver, enters a blocking mode where only Apps that have been specifically identified by the Parent can been seen and used.  Further, text messages, and push notifications are silenced and prohibited from displaying in the drawer or as a popup.  Inbound phone calls, not on an approved list established by the Parent,  are redirected to voice mail with the caller receiving a text message identifying that the Driver is driving, and will return the call when safe to do so.

Parent’s can play back historical travel by the driver in pseudo-realtime mode (or play the trip at once), or in near-realtime, using SafeDriveZone’s Live-Drive mode.

For more information, visit: www.safedrivezone.com or contact David Anderson at davida@safedrivezone.com.

#2

That’s cool!

Rob

#3

Thanks, Rob.

It’s exciting that an old relic like me gets to ride the coaster one more time.

Dave

#4

Great idea but how many 16/17 year olds will want this forced by their parents?  More to the point, how will their parents get passed biometrics to even get this installed?

What stops them just installing Nova or any other launcher?

Do you check whether the phone is tethered to the car to decide if calls/nav/etc are ok?

How do you know the device that is moving is actually the driver and not just a passenger or on public transport?

Just curious…

#5

Very good questions.

1.        Without a good reason, not many.   However,  how many 16/17 year olds are actually paying for their own cars, insurance and phones.  We are talking with various insurance companies about discounts for using the product due to the dramatic reduction in risk through its use.  Next, it is just not for kids.  Parents, spouses, etc are all impacted as well.  We have been well trained - much like pavlov’s dogs, to respond to the sound.  Next, take a look at the legislation being written and passed in most states - making Texting while driving a primary offense - and in some cases an arrest-able offense.   

2.       That is up to the parent.  Yes, they can install another launcher, and the parent is immediately notified that the device is no longer reporting.   The same happens if SDZ or SDZ Messenger is still installed, but no longer the default.

3.       Yes - with everything we have tested so far, including Google Voice.  Keep in mind, the Driver and Messenger apps are native and operate as background threaded services, so with the apis, we are a lot closer to the kernel.  We originally tried to use Corona for everything, but not being able to operate in background became an issue.  Then, when Google changed the way location services was being handled in Oreo, all bets were off there, so we kept Parent in Corona and went native with the rest.

4.       We have a passenger mode - where the driver makes the request to the parent (with explanation why).  The parent can approve or deny.  If approved, the driver’s device operates normally for a period of time established by the parent.  If denied, the phone is blocked.  We’re not “completely” heartless.

There is a timeout period (by default 90 seconds) where if the phone is below the threshold speed, for that long, it returns to normal.  I’ve been using it on my own phone and find that not checking my email in traffic or at stop lights really didnt kill me.  Important numbers like my office or wife and kids are in my allowable list and can call me.  The texts can wait.   The phone has become much less important.

Dave

#6

Wow!

Congratulations on a complex and hopefully life saving app. 

#7

Thank you

#8

I can’t offer direct insights as I live in New York City where virtually no kids drive (my own kids take the subway or walk everywhere).  However, this is a common topic with our friends and family who live in the suburbs or rural communities where kids drive themselves or get rides with friends everywhere.  It seems to me that this is one of those golden apps that has a ready and motivated user base if it can find a way onto parents’ radars.

Visually, the design looks clean and simple.  How are you advertising the app?  Teen diving safety with regard to phone use is such a common topic that it seems a few well placed intros to the market could make a big difference.  There are competing apps but, surprisingly, the market seems far from saturated - at least for parent controlled apps.

Good luck!

#9

Sorry for the delay in responding and Thank you.   It’s been a very busy time and I haven’t been up here.

Thanks to some last minute tweaking and “White Knight” Scott Harrison’s Safari plug-in, SafeDriveZone - Parent for iOS was submitted to the App Store on March 15th - and accepted on its first attempt in a surprising 7 hours.

To those developers who are intimidated by the intricacies of iOS app submission, Corona has done an amazingly complete job of explaining and walking you through the process.   Follow their steps EXACTLY.

Thank you to the Corona team for an exceptional product and the Community at large for all of their help.  SafeDriveZone is an extremely sophisticated non-game app (didn’t want to call it a business app) that runs on multiple platforms with maybe 20 lines of platform dependent code.  Life doesn’t get much better than that.  (ok, maybe that stretches things a wee bit)

Our next step is to migrate it to the desktop.  Oh mighty wizards - Cards?

READY PLAYER ONE   :smiley:

Dave Anderson

#10

That’s cool!

Rob

#11

Thanks, Rob.

It’s exciting that an old relic like me gets to ride the coaster one more time.

Dave

#12

Great idea but how many 16/17 year olds will want this forced by their parents?  More to the point, how will their parents get passed biometrics to even get this installed?

What stops them just installing Nova or any other launcher?

Do you check whether the phone is tethered to the car to decide if calls/nav/etc are ok?

How do you know the device that is moving is actually the driver and not just a passenger or on public transport?

Just curious…

#13

Very good questions.

1.        Without a good reason, not many.   However,  how many 16/17 year olds are actually paying for their own cars, insurance and phones.  We are talking with various insurance companies about discounts for using the product due to the dramatic reduction in risk through its use.  Next, it is just not for kids.  Parents, spouses, etc are all impacted as well.  We have been well trained - much like pavlov’s dogs, to respond to the sound.  Next, take a look at the legislation being written and passed in most states - making Texting while driving a primary offense - and in some cases an arrest-able offense.   

2.       That is up to the parent.  Yes, they can install another launcher, and the parent is immediately notified that the device is no longer reporting.   The same happens if SDZ or SDZ Messenger is still installed, but no longer the default.

3.       Yes - with everything we have tested so far, including Google Voice.  Keep in mind, the Driver and Messenger apps are native and operate as background threaded services, so with the apis, we are a lot closer to the kernel.  We originally tried to use Corona for everything, but not being able to operate in background became an issue.  Then, when Google changed the way location services was being handled in Oreo, all bets were off there, so we kept Parent in Corona and went native with the rest.

4.       We have a passenger mode - where the driver makes the request to the parent (with explanation why).  The parent can approve or deny.  If approved, the driver’s device operates normally for a period of time established by the parent.  If denied, the phone is blocked.  We’re not “completely” heartless.

There is a timeout period (by default 90 seconds) where if the phone is below the threshold speed, for that long, it returns to normal.  I’ve been using it on my own phone and find that not checking my email in traffic or at stop lights really didnt kill me.  Important numbers like my office or wife and kids are in my allowable list and can call me.  The texts can wait.   The phone has become much less important.

Dave

#14

Wow!

Congratulations on a complex and hopefully life saving app. 

#15

Thank you

#16

I can’t offer direct insights as I live in New York City where virtually no kids drive (my own kids take the subway or walk everywhere).  However, this is a common topic with our friends and family who live in the suburbs or rural communities where kids drive themselves or get rides with friends everywhere.  It seems to me that this is one of those golden apps that has a ready and motivated user base if it can find a way onto parents’ radars.

Visually, the design looks clean and simple.  How are you advertising the app?  Teen diving safety with regard to phone use is such a common topic that it seems a few well placed intros to the market could make a big difference.  There are competing apps but, surprisingly, the market seems far from saturated - at least for parent controlled apps.

Good luck!

#17

Sorry for the delay in responding and Thank you.   It’s been a very busy time and I haven’t been up here.

Thanks to some last minute tweaking and “White Knight” Scott Harrison’s Safari plug-in, SafeDriveZone - Parent for iOS was submitted to the App Store on March 15th - and accepted on its first attempt in a surprising 7 hours.

To those developers who are intimidated by the intricacies of iOS app submission, Corona has done an amazingly complete job of explaining and walking you through the process.   Follow their steps EXACTLY.

Thank you to the Corona team for an exceptional product and the Community at large for all of their help.  SafeDriveZone is an extremely sophisticated non-game app (didn’t want to call it a business app) that runs on multiple platforms with maybe 20 lines of platform dependent code.  Life doesn’t get much better than that.  (ok, maybe that stretches things a wee bit)

Our next step is to migrate it to the desktop.  Oh mighty wizards - Cards?

READY PLAYER ONE   :smiley:

Dave Anderson