VANCOUVER – Aegis Mobility, the global leader in solutions to prevent distracted driving, announced last week that it has been awarded a contract from the Iowa Department of Transportation to provide a mobile application, TEXTL8R, to reduce distracted driving fatalities and accidents. Once developed, Iowa will be the first state to offer text blocking technology for free to teenage drivers.
The Iowa DOT is the first state transportation agency that has worked to combat distracted driving through the creation of a mobile application. According to the National Safety Council, mobile device use is a contributing factor in an estimated 23 percent of all motor vehicle crashes. To reduce these preventable accidents and as part of an initiative to meet the state’s goal of zero fatalities on Iowa’s roadways, the Iowa DOT will provide the TEXTL8R application free-of-charge to young drivers, ages 14-17, in the state.
“Distracted driving has become a serious issue on our roadways. The TEXTL8R app is a way to help reduce distractions for drivers and to create conversations between parents and our young drivers who are most at risk,” said Mark Lowe, director, Iowa DOT Motor Vehicle Division. “We chose Aegis Mobility as our partner based upon a combination of cost and their ability to meet our requirements including desired app features and a quick production schedule.”
The TEXTL8R application, which will disable text and phone capabilities when driving (except for emergency calls), is scheduled to be launched in the first quarter of 2014. Other planned features include:
• The ability to monitor and receive reports on driver behavior, including drive time, speeding, fast acceleration and hard braking
• A secure parent portal providing reports on driving behaviors, including route-specific events displayed on maps
• Notifications sent to parents via email for exceeding configurable thresholds
“Aegis is very pleased to be working in partnership with the State of Iowa to help reduce distracted driving, and we admire their forward-thinking on such an important issue,” said Paul Zimmerman, CEO of Aegis Mobility. “Leaning on the unparalleled strengths of our market-leading FleetSafer software, we will be able to build an application that we hope will save lives in Iowa, and eventually, across the United States.”
The core features of TEXTL8R will also be available under the Aegis brand TeenSafer or various partners’ brands in 2014.
The results of the State of Iowa DOT bid process can be found here. Contact Aegis today to learn more about TeenSafer for families or to schedule a demonstration.
Why must we have government all up in our grill all the time? That’s not the America I grew up in. I liked it better when government came FROM us and not AT us.
No one will use the app as we all say we shouldn’t text and drive, but you know we do! This app would send us back to the 80’s when we were unreachable when in transit which is unheard of these days. As well, do we really want “big brother” having this knowledge available to them with the future additions of knowledge of speeding, fast acceleration, and hard breaking? So, let’s hear it now from all the people in support of this who have flip phones who I’m sure always drive the speed limit.
This is a great idea to help save young lives. Now we’ll see how many use it.