Life is precious and speed is precarious

The UN Road Safety Collaboration will observe the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week from 8-14 May, 2017. The Week will focus on speed and what can be done to address this key risk factor for road traffic deaths and injuries. Let’s track some of the extraordinary innovations that have guarded people against accidents.

1 Drivers are endlessly creative for finding dumb things to do while behind the wheel: eating, texting, reading a map, or applying makeup. Now with technology, this new thing is causing a lot of accidents and deaths on roads. Toyota created an advertisement to create awareness and became the first car company taking an interest in the subject. The advert has been a huge success on social media. What is being discussed here?

2 A road accident during a Sunday afternoon trip to the Pennsylvania countryside in 1952 inspired John W. Hetrick to design this. A similar thing was also patented in 1951 by German Walter Linderer. Both worked on a revolutionary idea. The valuable invention fetched little economic value to John W. Hetrick as its first commercial use did not occur until after the patent expired in 1971. What did they innovate?

3 Have you had the experience of falling asleep behind the wheel while driving? It has caused thousands of road accidents. Inspired by his own experience, the company founder Troels Palshof developed this dash-mounted device that might be mistaken for a hockey puck with lights. It uses a combination of accelerometers, reaction tests and considers 26 factors in determining your fatigue levels. Identify the gadget.

4 Rochester Hills-based leader ‘Dogs for the Blind’ has developed a new navigational device to increase travel independence for the visually impaired to keep them safe while on the road. It is larger than a credit card and has voice recognition capabilities. The most fascinating part is when one asks the gadget ‘Where am I?’ it gives the exact location and the distance in feet towards your destination. Identify the gadget.

5 In March 2017, Intel bought this company in one of the biggest high-tech mergers in Israeli history. Amnon Shashua, founder of this company, created a technical solution for a vision system which could detect vehicles using only a camera and software algorithms on a processor. Now, they created vision-based advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation. Which company is this?