Safe driving app evolves
CRANBERRY TWP — Months of hard work and dedication have paid off for five Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School students.
The students' teen motor safety mobile app, Safe Speed, was published recently on the Google Play Store. It is there for anyone to get.
They will present the free app at the 2016 National Technology Student Association Conference in Nashville from Tuesday to July 2.
Team members are: Matt Esser, 16; Luc Madonna, 16; and Chris Virostek, 16, all rising juniors from Gibsonia, Giovanna Esposito, 15, from Seven Fields, and Veronica Muth, 14, a rising sophomore from Butler.
“It was a lot of work, but I think this was a good payoff to finally see we have it available to the public,” Esposito said. “We appreciate the opportunities we have had.”
However, the app's design has changed since it received Best in Nation honors from the Verizon Innovative App Challenge in February.
Safe Speed is now geared for teen passengers instead of teen drivers as originally planned.
The team did further research and concluded that the original concept “would have been a cognitive distraction to the driver.”
“We saw if we used our initial concept, people would have to use their phones while they're driving,” Madonna said. “That would have taken away the purpose of keeping people safe.”
The app recommends that all teen drivers turn off their phones while driving.
The app allows young passengers to judge if the person driving is traveling too fast and gives them a speedometer to check. There is a button on the app which gives a warning sound to the driver.
“It activates your child's ability to speak up in a car when they are a passenger, particularly a passenger who does not feel safe. It gives them some control,” said Ellen Cavanaugh, the team's adviser.
Cavanaugh is the CEO of Sewickley-based Grow a Generation, the organization that published the app.
Safe Speed also gives parents videos which help explain to children how to speak up in certain situations. There are two videos where parents can teach their children how to use the app.
The students also made a video telling potential users the app's purpose in the download screen.
Despite the change in plans, the team says the app was a success. The students first got together for the project last fall.
“It's going to help people in a different way,” Esposito said.
The idea for Safe Speed was inspired by the tragedy of three Butler County teens who were in an accident involving excessive speeding. The driver, a high school senior, was killed, and his two passengers were hospitalized.
Cavanaugh said, “The team hopes that their app will add to the conversation about saving teen lives and become the cornerstone for the type of technology that can be incorporated into future cars and phone applications.”
She said the app was made possible with the guidance of MIT App Inventor mentor Pauline Lake and electrical engineer Seth Peasley at Westinghouse.
While the app can only be found on the Google Play Store, Madonna said the team might look to expand that in the future.
