App-ealing new idea to tag speed traps

MANY Clare drivers have been hit in the pocket and left frustrated by a very rigorous anti-speeding campaign over the last two years but a Shannon businessman has developed a system that will alert motorists to the locations of speed traps.

Gerard King is behind the country’s first real-time notification system, U-TAG, which is essentially a smartphone social network allowing motorists to connect with each other for the purpose of issuing speed trap alerts.
Speaking to The Clare Champion this week, he said he was inspired after clocking up four penalty points, having twice being caught driving marginally above the speed limit. “I was doing 54 in a 50 in Parteen and the second time I was on the way up from Cork and I was marginally over the 60.”
Explaining how the product works, he said, “Essentially, what it is is an app that we’ve developed and the app is the front end of a software programme that operates in cloud computing. The person downloads the app to their iPhone or android and we’ll supply them with a device, a bluetooth button device, which talks to the app, essentially.”
People are given a button that can be stuck onto their dashboard and the idea is that they press this if they encounter a speed trap. “Even though the garda website gives out the position of the zones, you never knew if there was a van in the zone at that time, that’s where our system is different to any other system, in that it’s real-time operated. When somebody passes the van, they press the button and the GPS in the phone sends the co-ordinates of the button-press, the direction of travel and the time to the cloud server and we call that a tag.”
Mr King says the app is not designed to encourage irresponsible driving nor is it fool-proof. “It’s important to say here that this isn’t something that’ll allow people to fly off the road and think that they’re going to be warned. You could still be the first person to come on the van and you might not be warned.
“But the chances of you being the first person, with the amount of people involved, is reduced. We won’t necessarily believe the first tag either, because there could be a child in the car pressing this button all the way along, tagging cows. There are a lot of rules and a lot of thought has gone into the software as to how the software analyses the tags. There is a threshold and if a couple of people from individual phones tag a point, we put up a hot spot and if anyone comes within a kilometre or a kilometre and a half of the hot spot, the phone will warn them. It’ll alert them through a beep and a voice activation telling them that there’s a confirmed U-Tag hotspot ahead.”
At present, U-Tag is looking for 1,000 drivers in Clare, Limerick and Kerry to take the product for free for an eight-week period to test its functionality before it goes to full nationwide launch early next year.
Mr King says that if the app is launched commercially, it will have two dimensions to it, one of which will be available for free and one which will come at a price. “At the moment, it’s on trial and we’re giving out everything for free to the first thousand people but afterwards, if everything goes right and we launch it, you’ll be able to download the app for free and it’ll warn you if you’re entering a speed trap zone.
“At the moment, the councils have these little signs that have a picture of a camera on them. They’re not that easy to see and they don’t tell you if you’re exiting a zone.
“For free, the app will warn you that you’re entering a zone and that you are leaving one. The premium service, which we hope to pitch between €2 and €3a month, will tell you in real time if there’s a van in the zone at that particular time.”
He says there has already been huge interest in the trial phase, even though participation is limited to Clare, Limerick and Kerry. “People seem to be delighted to get on board with it. It’s really going to be down to how successful the trial is and how people get on with it, as to whether we’ll roll it out nationwide.
“You have to be from Clare, Limerick or Kerry or be driving in that area to take part in the trial. There’s a huge number of people from all over the country coming to the website trying to sign up who aren’t suitable.”
He reiterated that the app aims to get people to be aware of their speeding. “We do want people to heed their speed, the safety element is a huge part of what we’re trying to promote; we’re not saying this is a license to speed.”
Those taking part in the trial will get the app for free for the first six months after the commercial roll-out.
Anyone interested in taking part and who has an iPhone or android device can log on to www.u-tag.ie/registration and sign up.
They can then download the app to their smartphone and receive their in-car device in the post. The trial is beginning next Monday.