Driving away
distraction
USING A SMARTPHONE FOR SAFER DRIVING
Can a mobile phone make someone a better driver?
For the most part, being young is pretty awesome. Getting behind the wheel means you’re more independent than you’ve ever been. You feel bulletproof.
Unfortunately, this feeling of invulnerability can have some serious side effects. If you talk to young drivers like we did in the early stages of this project, you quickly discover that they know all about the risks, the fines and the danger. But it doesn’t change their behaviour. They’ll still text while driving. They’ll still speed.
But what if we could use their phones in a different way? What if we could actually rewarded them for safer driving, instead of punishing them for breaking the rules?
The result was S-Drive, a safe driving program that let users earn points for every safe
kilometre driven.
One of the most fascinating aspects of working on a project like this was defining and determining the functionality of the app itself. We knew that anything that felt like it was hobbling the phone could be rejected. We also knew that asking them to remember to start up an app each time they went for a drive was going to be close to impossible. If we wanted S-Drive to stick, it had to become part of their natural behaviour.
The S-Drive kit and cradle
This is why the cradle was such an important part of the product. Equipped with a pre-programmed NFC tile, the cradle automatically launched S-Drive when docked in the car, and automatically stops the app when removed. S-Drive could be enabled without the driver having to think.
The app experience also works in conjunction with navigation software, meaning that users aren’t locked out of using a phone feature that can genuinely help them on the road.
Key screens from the S-Drive application
Every decision we made had a focus - is this something that these young drivers would genuinely use and value? And when one of your favourite aspects of your job is solving problems, working through these kind of issues is ultimately what makes a project like this so rewarding.
Awards
Grand Prix - AdFest - Promotion
Winner - ADC Tomorrow Awards
Gold - London International Awards - The New
Silver - Spikes - Integrated, Promotion
Bronze - Cannes Lions - Mobile User Experience
Bronze - Cannes Lions - Media - Use of mobile devices