Skip to main content

Winners of AT&T traffic safety innovation challenge announced

The winners of AT&T's Connected Intersections Challenge, a technology challenge aimed at stimulating innovative solutions to improve traffic safety on New York City streets. Forty-five teams from 13 countries and 26 states submitted their apps and wearable devices ranging from smartphone sensors, phone-to-phone communications and natural user interfaces, among other technologies. The winners include: Tug, an app that alerts pedestrians as they are about to enter an intersection; an anti-sleep alarm
October 22, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
RSSThe winners of 1970 AT&T's Connected Intersections Challenge, a technology challenge aimed at stimulating innovative solutions to improve traffic safety on New York City streets.

Forty-five teams from 13 countries and 26 states submitted their apps and wearable devices ranging from smartphone sensors, phone-to-phone communications and natural user interfaces, among other technologies.

The winners include: Tug, an app that alerts pedestrians as they are about to enter an intersection; an anti-sleep alarm using a 1809 Samsung smartwatch and a smart phone to alert drivers when they are showing signs of drowsiness; RiderAlert, which scans for Bluetooth-enabled devices in traffic to alert drivers to the presence of cyclists and pedestrians; Drive Safely, an app that uses NFC technology to determine if a smartphone user is sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle and sends an auto-reply message to incoming calls and texts while the vehicle is moving; and Drowsy Detector which uses facial recognition technology to determine when a driver is getting drowsy and sends a warning followed by an alert that can be deactivated only when the driver stops.

"Today's mobile technology allows us to envision and create solutions to problems in completely new and different ways," said Marissa Shorenstein, New York State president of AT&T. "By focusing this challenge on traffic safety, AT&T hopes to spur a wave of innovation aimed at making our streets safer for all that use them. The creative solutions we see here today are just the beginning."

"New York City's Vision Zero initiative means that we need to use every tool in our arsenal to drive down traffic related fatalities and injuries. The AT&T Connected Intersections traffic safety tech challenge calls on the tech industry to try innovation as simple as the phone in your pocket to improve safety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians alike," said Kim Wiley-Schwartz, Assistant Commissioner for Education and Outreach, New York City's Department of Transportation. "We commend these entrepreneurs and applaud the efforts of AT&T and NYU Poly to do everything they can to make the streets safer."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Europe to lead insurance telematics market
    June 14, 2012
    The number of insurance telematics users in Europe will grow from 1.5 million in 2010 to 44 million in 2017, initially driven by the UK and Italy, according to ABI Research. Despite aggressive efforts from Progressive, North America will continue to lag behind the European UBI market, it says. Vice president and practice director Dominique Bonte comments, “While insurance telematics or usage based insurance (UBI) is far from a recent phenomenon, renewed interest in this market has been observed from both es
  • Why AI could be the saviour of public transport – if we let it
    April 16, 2025
    Get it right and the rewards could be there. Thomas Ableman looks at how transport in the UK – and beyond – might be transformed by artificial intelligence…
  • Toyota proving ground tests co-operative ITS
    February 25, 2013
    Opened in November 2012, Toyota’s intelligent transportation systems (ITS) proving ground is being used to run a number of interactive tests between specially-equipped Toyota vehicles. Located at the company's Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre in Susono City, Japan, the ITS proving ground is a 3.5-hectare site that faithfully replicates a real urban environment, complete with intersecting streets, pedestrian crosswalks, and traffic signals. It is equipped with optical beacons, government-allocated 760 MHz trans
  • Major New York transit sign order for Daktronics
    November 9, 2015
    Daktronics is to supply the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) New York City Transit with 630 digital rail platform displays, to be installed by the July 2017. The multi-coloured LED displays, part of the subway system's Public Address Customer Information System (PACIS), will feature next train arrival and destination information as well as graphical information. A text to speech function aids visually impaired transit riders with clear and easy to access messaging. According to Daktronics,