Europe’s Innovators Win at AT&T’s Connected Intersections Challenge

Across Europe, finding ways to promote entrepreneurship and innovation to create economic growth is a popular topic of conversation. New ideas can also create solutions to problems.

Building on our efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of texting while driving, AT&T introduced Connected Intersections – a global contest that asked developers to improve traffic safety on New York City streets and other urban environments using smartphone technology. For the past four months, developers from around the world created technologies that connect pedestrians, cyclists and motorists and alert them to potential dangers.

Forty-five teams from 13 countries submitted a range of new traffic safety technologies including apps and wearable devices using smartphone sensors and phone-to-phone communications. Among the teams were contestants from Europe. Using their innovative spirit to improve social good, the European teams swept the entire Connected Intersections category dedicated to creating solutions for drivers:

Grand Prize Winner: Anti-Sleep Alarm created by ProExe of Warsaw, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland

• Using a Samsung Gear 2 smartwatch and a smartphone, the Anti-Sleep Alarm app detects the drowsiness of a driver via hand gestures or facial recognition and prompts the driver to pull over and rest or it sets off an alarm if the app determines the driver is falling asleep behind the wheel.

Second Prize Winner: Drive Safely created by incorporateapps of Berlin, Germany

• An app that uses NFC technology to determine if a smartphone user is sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle and sends an auto-reply message to incoming calls and texts while the vehicle is moving. The app runs in the background and will not activate on public transit or when the smartphone owner is a passenger in a vehicle.

Large Organization Recognition Award: SafeDrive App created by SafeDrive of Bucharest, Romania

• An app that awards points to drivers for not texting while driving and provides the smartphone owner the opportunity to redeem those points for products and services at partner companies.

Watch the video below to learn more. You can also visit the Connected Intersections challenge website here for additional details and the full list of winners.

This post originally appeared on the Global Public Policy blog.