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

  • Volvo’s new cars to get pedestrian and cyclist detection
    March 28, 2013
    By tracking moving objects, a new system from Volvo could help prevent accidents. The system uses a camera embedded in a car’s rear view mirror, combined with a radar instrument in the grill to scan the road ahead. If it sees an object, an onboard computer will determine whether it is a cyclist or a pedestrian, and prepare to apply the brakes if someone swerves out into traffic or darts across road. Many cars already come with safety systems that will brake if a collision with another vehicle or a pedestria
  • ITS Australia confirms 40 finalists 
    October 16, 2020
    This year has seen largest number of submissions to organisation's National Awards 
  • EU road fatalities fall by 11% in 2010
    April 20, 2012
    The European Commission has published new statistics showing that EU road fatalities decreased by 11 per cent in 2010. However, country by country statistics show that the number of deaths still varies greatly across the EU. Most countries achieved double-digit reductions in the number of road deaths over the past year, including Luxembourg (33%), Malta (29%) Sweden (26%) and Slovakia (26%).
  • App taps into world’s largest and most complex real time passenger info system
    July 11, 2012
    Transport for London’s (TfL) award winning Countdown System delivers bus real time information for every one of the 19,000 bus stops and 700 routes in London is claimed to be the largest and most technically complex real time passenger information system of its kind in the world. In 2009 Telent was awarded the contract by TfL to develop the Countdown software to deliver web and mobile content.