Safe drive app trials going well

Craig Foss.
Craig Foss.
The developers of a road safety app being trialled between Queenstown and Christchurch are pleased by the number of drivers providing feedback on the system.

More than 60 rental car users have taken part in the RouteTIP road safety technology trial since it began in mid-July.

Fifty GO Rentals cars have been equipped with the New Zealand-designed app, which prompts drivers with audio messages about road safety and road conditions received from roadside beacons.

The trial is a collaboration between GO Rentals, the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) and the app's developer, HMI Technologies.

HMI Technologies chief executive Ahmed Hikmet said the system had already been tested in closed trials in Christchurch and Melbourne, but it was the first time the company had received direct feedback from the public.

It had been developing the app for the past two years.

The goal was to get feedback from 100 drivers over a three-month period. With the current uptake, that number was expected to be easily exceeded.

Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss said the trial was not specifically aimed at foreign drivers, but the NZTA-led Visiting Driver Signature Project would consider including the app in its suite of safety measures.

GO Rentals general manager and Rental Vental Association vice-president James 
Dalglish said there was a clear benefit in a practical device that assisted overseas drivers during their self-drive holidays and that could help to reduce the frequency and number of serious crashes.

The Visiting Drivers Project is focused on Otago, Southland and the West Coast and key tourist routes in those areas. It includes initiatives focused on road safety at each stage of a visitor's holiday, from planning to booking, in-flight, arriving in New Zealand, and when actually on roads.

Initiatives include road safety leaflets included with some visitor visas, videos on road safety for Chinese and Indian visitors, an in-flight road safety app, various road safety material for arrivals from overseas, road improvements such as rumble strips and road arrows and more police on tourist routes in the high season.

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