Communications of the ACM
A New Software to Assess Driving Behavior and Driving Risks
Gerardo Reveriego's software allows drivers to assess and improve their driving behavior.
Credit: www.sciencepics.org
New software designed by a telecommunications engineer at the University of Malaga in Spain has the potential to reduce auto accidents by providing drivers with an assessment of their driving behavior. Gerardo Reveriego says the software is free, and would only require a mobile phone that has a global positioning system and an accelerometer.
The program works by gathering data on the acceleration and speed of the car, and the driver can look at the file later on a computer. "The route that is made can be seen on a free Google map reader, such as Google Earth," Reveriego says. "In such a route, you can see a series of polygons with different colors, width, and height that provide information on the levels of risk, centripetal acceleration, and speed, respectively." Reveriego notes, for example, that the polygons would turn red if the driver took a curve too fast, with the width indicating the acceleration and the height marking the speed.
Reveriego says the Spanish traffic authority could use the application to obtain autonomous reports of dangerous driving locations and then put up appropriate road signs.
From Andalucía Innova
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