Application for the Detection of Dangerous Driving and an Associated Gamification Framework

In today's highly technology-based world, wireless devices such as smartphones, are being utilized for solving daily problems and in making our daily lives more efficient. Although smartphones are sometimes to be blamed for vehicular accidents, they can also be used for helping to avoid accidents. In this paper we consider one such possible solution (called Project Drive), in which a smartphone based application is used to bridge the gap between negative driving detection and user motivation for safer driving behavior. Project Drive leverages a hosted web service to support the Android based application. Weather data is integrated with a modular negative driving detection component to create a point based system where positive driving is rewarded. Project Drive employs user motivation and retention strategies, such as gamification and social networking, as a means to promote safe driving. Users gain badges based on positive driving events that are seen by their contacts via the in-application social feed. Points of interest, including positive driving event areas, are visible via an interactive map. A small scale prototype was developed and used for testing of the associated algorithms as well as the social aspects of the framework.