Insurance Center

Insurance Companies Consider the Affects of Key2SafeDriving Application
The Key2SafeDriving system contains a device that surrounds a car key. There is one each for each teen driver or family member. The device makes a wireless connection with each key user's cell phone through the use of either Bluetooth or RFID (radio-frequency identification) technologies.

The driver must either slide the key out or push a button to release it if he/she wants to turn on the engine. At this point, the device then sends a signal to the driver's cell phone, placing it into 'driving mode' and showing a 'stop' sign image on the phone's display screen.
When the cell phone is in driving mode, the teen drivers are barred from using their cell phones to talk or send text messages. An exception is made for calling 911 or other numbers that parents have pre-approved, such as the parents' own cell numbers.

All calls and texts are answered with the message saying: I am driving now. I will call you later when I arrive safely at my destination.
To return to normal communication mode once the car is stopped, the driver slides the key back into the device. This sends a 'car stopped' signal to the cell phone.

The device can't be defeated through the use of turning the phone off and on again since the phone will record the 'driving mode' signal each time the car key is extended.

Even though studies by University of Utah psychologists indicate hands-free phones are just as distracting as handheld phones, while adult drivers are not permitted to text or use a handheld cell phone, the Key2SafeDriving system does however, allow them to talk using a hands-free cell phone.

Co-inventer of the system, former University of Utah graduate student Wally Curry, agrees that driving while talking on any cell phone is still unsafe, he does says the inventors have to face the practical issue of whether adults would buy a product that would completely block out their cell phone use while driving.

Curry sees it as being a step in the right direction to at least limit some cell calls by adults.

Xuesong Zhou, the inventor of the system, says the object for adults is to advance safety by encouraging them to decrease the time they spend talking while driving. Insurance discounts by insurers could act as an encouragement. These would be based on monthly scores sent to the insurers from Key2SafeDriving showing the degree to which an adult driver avoided talking while driving.

The Birth of an Invention
Wally Curry came up with the idea for the invention. He is a Salt Lake City native and he graduated from the University of Utah with an accounting degree as a premed student in 1993. He studied at the Medical College of Wisconsin and did his surgical residency in urology at University of Utah Hospital during 1998-2003. He is now an urologist living in Hays, Kan.

It was as a doctor that he became concerned with the dangers of driving-while-talking since the hospital was constantly calling him on his cell phone while he was driving and this posed a danger and a problem.