Vroom: a mood-enhancing driving efficiency application for your mobile device!
Life is a game! Fun in a game is found in a sweet spot between frustration and boredom. Driving can be such a fun game! However, commuting and driving in traffic can be both boring and frustrating. This can lead to aggressive driving which is inherently inefficient.
That's where Vroom comes in. Vroom is a meta-game application for your phone or tablet. To interact with it you just leave your device on the dashboard of your vehicle. Using the GPS and accelerometer, Vroom figures out what your altitude, momentum, acceleration, deceleration, and turn rate are at all times. Vroom turns the focus away from the negative emotions triggered by traffic and towards having fun with a well designed game that safely optimizes your driving performance.
Not only do negative emotions impact your driving, but efficient driving is counter-intuitive. We tend to defer breaking to the last moment. This brings us too close too quickly to the obstacle that will force us to stop. To preserve momentum you should sacrifice some of it early such that the same distance is traveled over a longer period of time. This gives the obstacle a chance to remove itself. There is a fine statistical balance to be aimed for and Vroom can guide drivers towards it.
To address the safety concern, there is no screen to interact with. Gauges and graphs are available, but all the relevant information about your performance, penalties, and rewards is be relayed through audio channels. Vroom should actually increase the driver focus and awareness to all driving parameters such as speed and obstacles resulting in increased safety on the road.
The obvious gain is gas savings. Depending on circumstances, preserving momentum has another benefit. In place and at a time where you'd normally leave from 0 km/h you are already moving at a higher speed. This means that you will arrive quicker and will have more time to spend with your loved ones. Last but not least, more efficient traffic correlates with streamlined, smooth traffic which results in lowering congestion rates. Driving in traffic can be frustrating. Your mood directly influences your driving style. As your frustration builds up you make decisions that hurt your car and wallet. These actions propagate through fellow drivers leading to chaos on the street. It is a vicious cycle. Wouldn't it be nice if driving could be fun, take you to your destination quicker, and save you gas as well?
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