In a bid to convince drivers in Aichi Prefecture to keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road, a new Japanese smartphone app offers free coffee coupons to drivers who don’t check their phones for at least 100 km.

For the last 13 years, Aichi Prefecture has recorded the highest rate of traffic fatalities in Japan. Last year, there were 443,691 accidents that resulted in injuries or deaths, and 50,101 arrests involving the use of smartphones while driving. With handhelds becoming such a big part of people’s lives, there appears to be an increase in violations of this nature, and authorities have yet to come up with an effective plan to combat the problem.

An ingenious new app has been developed to incentivize drivers to restrain themselves from checking their phones at the wheel to reduce the number of traffic accidents. Toyota Motor Corporation, Komeda Co. Ltd. and KDDI Corporation have teamed up to create Driving Barista, an app that uses the phone’s gyro sensor to sense the tilt of the device, and the GPS to determine the distance driven. This allows it to calculate the number of kilometers a driver has traveled with the smartphone facing down.

When Driving Barista determines that the smartphone has not been tampered with for at least 100 kilometers, it will reward the driver with a coupon for a cup of blended or iced coffee at a Komeda Coffee Shop. The reward is earned after every 100 kilometers driven without checking the phone. If you tinker with it before reaching the mandatory 100 km, the app will reset at 0 km.

Toyota claims that this is the first smartphone app that attempts to tackle traffic safety issues. “By carrying out a new traffic safety education initiative together with Komeda and KDDI, we hope to further reduce traffic accidents,” said Shuichi Murakami, managing officer at Toyota.

Driver Barista launched Sept. 20 and is available for both iOS and Android devices. For now, it only works in Aichi Pefecture.

为了督促爱知县的司机开车认真看路，日本新推出一款智能手机App，向开车100公里以上不看手机的司机提供免费咖啡券。

过去13年中，爱知县的交通死亡率一直居日本首位。去年有443691例交通事故伤亡，50101起交通肇事由于驾驶时使用智能手机造成。随着手机在生活中大量使

用，由此引发的交通违法也越来越多。但截至目前为止，官方还未提出有效计划来解决这一问题。

新研发出的一款独特App通过给驾驶时不看手机的司机以物质奖励从而有效减少交通事故的发生。日本丰田汽车公司、日本老牌咖啡连锁Komeda咖啡馆以及日本电讯商KDDI三家公司联合推出的Driving Barista手机App，使用手机陀螺仪传感器来感知手机的倾斜程度，使用GPS来检测汽车的行驶里程，从而计算出司机保持手机屏幕朝下行驶的距离。

当Driving Barista感知到手机在至少100公里内没有被动过时，就会奖励司机一张Komeda咖啡馆的混合咖啡或冰咖啡免费券。在不看手机的情况下每行驶100公里，就可以获得一张咖啡券。如果在未到达规定的100公里之前看手机行驶距离则归零。

丰田公司称，这是第一款致力于解决交通安全问题的手机app。丰田高管村上秀一说：“我们希望通过三家合作推广这一交通安全教育新措施，减少交通事故的发生。”

这款软件于9月20日投入使用，苹果和安卓用户均可下载。目前该软件只在日本爱知县使用。

(Chinadaily.com.cn)

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

    【死亡人数】sǐwáng rénshù fatality a death resulting from a disaster

    【有创意的】yǒu chuàngyì de ingenious characterized by cleverness or originality of invention or construction