A couple very interesting speeding hacks came across my Reader today, one involves positive reenforcement for following the speed limit, the other negative.
The first one (h/t Gizmodo) is the winning idea from VW’s The Fun Theory contest. It’s a speeding camera that snaps your picture if you’re speeding and fines you, natch.
It also snaps your picture if you’re abiding by the limit and enters you into a lottery to win the money collected from the speeders. Check it:
Of course, I love the game mechanics of this solution, i.e. creating an incentive to elicit behavior.
I have questions thought. How many entries can I get? Is there an opt-out option? If I speed once, am I forever ineligible to win?
Even with all the questions, I like the idea.
The second one (h/t Lifehacker) is an app, called Slow Down, for your iPhone that slows down your music when you speed, ultimately turning it off entirely if you’re going too fast. Check it:
The Slow Down App from OVK on Vimeo.
Of course, it only works if you turn it on in your car and listen to music on your iPhone.
I like the idea, and I’m very curious about the technology. It must use GPS to determine your location and speed, and it must also know the speed limit where you are. Plus, it has to control the audio, all under the covers, i.e. the app’s UI doesn’t reveal much.
Also possibly interesting is that both these ideas were tested in Europe, where (if you believe Top Gear) speed cameras are far more common than here in the States.
BTW the new American Top Gear does not hold a candle to the original. Same can be said for The Office and other British orginals. IMHO.
I was referring to the original Top Gear; the American one was epic meh. The two Offices are very different, and each good in its own right. Steve Carrell plays a much more sympathetic boss than Ricky Gervais.
Coupling, actually a Friends knock-off, turned out to be pretty great too. Of course the American version, in a weird American version of a British version of an American original, sucked big time.
Agreed – the two Offices are very different (though Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant of the UK one direct the US one and wrote some material). Having worked in both the US and UK I think they’ve captured some of the nuances quite nicely. Not that they can be mentioned here.
When it debuted, I was surprised to see that Ricky Gervais was involved in the US Office. Watching the US version evolve, I wonder how the BBC one would have evolved over time. Sad that it ended so soon.