Don't like someone's driving? Report it to the DMV from your iPhone

CrzRsn

So long, and thanks for all the fish
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https://pic.armedcats.net/c/cr/crazyrussian540/2010/12/18/drivemecrazy-iphone-app.jpg

We all see bad drivers. Now, one company has developed an iPhone app called DriveMeCrazy, which allows you to digitally jot down a license plate and deem someone a "bad driver." This information isn't then simply posted to some lame social network, it's reported to the DMV and your insurance company.

While the idea of being able to report someone for driving like a jackass sounds great, there's little question that this will lead to abuse. What if someone were out to get you and reported you simply because they felt like it? Perhaps the person who didn't get that parking spot you ended up with is feeling particularly angry. Maybe the other driver didn't see your blinker even though you had it on for the last 15 minutes. This is DrivemeCrazy's inherent flaw.

In addition to empowering virtual snitches, DriveMeCrazy also lets users reward good driving, as well as "flirt" with other DrivemeCrazy users. We now await the first report of a DriveMeCrazy user getting a real ticket for using a mobile device to serve up a cheesy virtual ticket while driving.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/12/18/...des-outlet-for-virtual-tattle-tales/#thankYou

Is it just me or does this seem like a terrible idea.

from the comments:
If some girl doing 5 under the speed limit who's on her third car in 6 months texts my flawless plate number to some idiot app and I have to pay for it, I'll go 4chan crazy.

I think I have to agree with this commenter.


EDIT: More. From Wired.

A new app that lets frustrated drivers vent their anger at boneheaded motorists already has branded your bumper with a ?How?s My Driving? sticker, and it could raise your insurance premium. It?s like having thousands of unmarked police cars and speed cameras on every roadway, and it could spell the end of anonymity behind the wheel.

DriveMeCrazy, developed by Shazam co-founder Philip Inghelbrecht, is a voice-activated app that encourages drivers to report bad behavior by reciting the offender?s license plate into a smartphone. The poor sap gets ?flagged? and receives a virtual ?ticket,? which may not sound like much until you realize all the information ? along with date, time and location of the ?offense? ? is sent to the DMV and insurance companies.

Anyone can write a ticket, even pedestrians and cyclists. No one is safe from being tattled on. Even if you don?t use the program, which went live Wednesday, you can?t opt out of being flagged if someone thinks you?re driving like a schmuck. Inghelbrecht is emphatic in saying he sees no privacy issues with the app and insists the end of road-going anonymity can only improve safety.

?People think they can do bad things on the road because they think they can get away with it,? he said. ?I believe that driving is one of the most public acts that you could ever do. One small mistake can impact the lives of those around you.?

Inghelbrecht compares DriveMeCrazy to government programs that encourage reporting drunk drivers or gross polluters. If drivers know they?re being watched by smartphone-wielding vigilantes, Inghelbrecht figures they will refrain from aggressive behavior for fear of getting flagged. His goal is to cut the number of motor vehicle accidents 1 or 2 percent by 2020, a figure that would represent 700 lives saved annually.

?That would be the most beautiful outcome, commercial aspects aside,? he said.

Those commercial aspects could be huge.

?The ability for monetization is actually really strong,? he said. ?I don?t want to get into too much detail, but essentially if people report driving behavior of their fellow motorists, you?re building a database of driver information.?

It?s like vehicle-history reports, but with thousands of reports on the behavior of individual drivers. ?That?s obviously interesting to the insurance companies, who are truly information starved,? he said.

Insurance companies rely on buying your driving record from your state?s motor-vehicle bureau, and they use predictive proxy data such as marital status, homeownership and ZIP code to determine your risk. Inghelbrecht sees insurance companies having great interest in a driver-behavior database that, if predictive of claims data, could help set rates.

Already, Inghelbrecht is looking at putting together a pilot program with insurance companies, though the industry?s interest ? and how much driver-reported data regulators might allow them to use ? is uncertain. Nationwide Insurance offered an opinion in an e-mail to Wired.com.

?Auto-insurance rates are filed with state regulators and must include consistent definitions for the activities that will vary costs for consumers,? the company said. ?Because each individual who would observe another driver?s performance would have a unique perspective about what might be safe behaviors, it would be difficult to use information reported by the general public.?

Not quite a ringing endorsement, but Inghelbrecht isn?t worried.

?Our data is never as official or authoritative as a police report,? he said. So how can he assure accuracy? Volume.

?The reality is that the police only capture about 35 million moving violations, of which 10 million make it to the DMV,? he said. ?For us to get 10 million flags on vehicles isn?t exactly a stretch.?

That?s 10 million pieces of information about motorists sent in by their fellow motorists. Of course, the wisdom of the crowd may not hold up under the scrutiny of state regulators or insurance companies? internal standards.

There are no limitations on reasons for flagging. Pass on a double-yellow line in a school zone? Flagged. Not driving fast enough for the 16-year-old hoon tailgating you? Flagged. Didn?t see that jaywalking pedestrian wearing a dark coat at night? Flagged. Got a bumpersticker that offends someone? You guessed it. Flagged.

?There?s going to be noise in the data,? Inghelbrecht conceded.

Still, the company is developing algorithms that sort out malicious flags from relevant data. For each flag, he said, ?we capture the day, the time, the location, obviously the license plate and the unique device identifier on [a flagger's] iPhone. You can quickly detect malicious use.? Safeguards ensure that multiple flags of the same driver from the same user are ignored, and mistakenly entered plates are matched with other location data.

If that doesn?t work, drivers will soon be able to leave feedback for informants, er, flaggers, which is currently the only official appeal that a flagged driver will have.

Inghelbrecht says someday his crowdsourced driver-behavior database may be worth more than relatively incomplete DMV records, much the same way that online review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp have gained in popularity over Michelin guides.

?If I had told you 10 years ago you can choose between Michelin or reviews by people who visited the restaurant, you and me and everyone else would?ve said Michelin,? he said.

It isn?t all negative. Drivers can also report someone who is driving safely or even flirt with other drivers who have DriveMeCrazy profiles set up, but we imagine that cutie in the 3-Series convertible won?t be nearly as interested in you as your insurance company.

https://pic.armedcats.net/c/cr/crazyrussian540/2010/12/18/dmc41.jpghttps://pic.armedcats.net/c/cr/crazyrussian540/2010/12/18/drive-me-crazy-screens.jpg

What I don't understand is how exactly will this work. For instance, someone reports me for going 30mph over the speed limit in a school zone. When my insurance company calls me to ask about it, I simply deny it. They have no proof. And if they try to push a bullshit insurance premium increase on me, I sue since there is no reason behind it.
Or, someone could drive over to the insurance company building, and report all their cars.


The founder wants to decrease auto accidents by 1 or 2 percent? How about instead of an app that is probably going to distract people from driving, he starts a driving school.
 
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How can that be legal if texting while driving isn't?
If YOU USE the app you should be the one in trouble because no way you are watching the road.
 
Is it anonymous? Will you have the right to question the person who took your picture?

Also how will they know it's you driving the vehicle? Will they need to get your face?


Yea, I agree CrazyRussian, this is a dumb idea. If you really think someone is severely endangering others, just call the police.
 
Yeah if it's not worth calling the cops it shouldn't be allowed. I have been tempted a few times by idiots driving way over the line on the highway or something but OH NO SOMEONE CUT ME OFF or something is a whole different thing.
 
Will it also use the phone's accelerometer to detect the crash you will have while trying to report someone else - and then report you as well? :p
 
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Yeah if it's not worth calling the cops it shouldn't be allowed. I have been tempted a few times by idiots driving way over the line on the highway or something but OH NO SOMEONE CUT ME OFF or something is a whole different thing.

I've actually called the cops on one of those discount Chinese Boston <> New York buses before. I was going 85mph in the center lane when one of their 50,000lb monsters came flying by on my left as if I was standing still. He was all over the lane, and when one of those buses hits the rumble strip at whats got to be at least 95mph, it doesn't make a pretty sound. He then swerved away from the rumble strip and almost hit a car in my lane, but luckily he didn't. Not to mention he had 54 passengers on board. Oh, and the turbulence following the bus didn't make my life any easier either.

I'm not usually one to call the cops, and probably wouldn't have if it was some riced Civic or soccer mom X5, but I had to make the exception for a giant VanHool T2145.
 
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Yeah if I see someone doing something that makes me think "this person is drunk" I would be tempted to report them.
 
I've actually called the cops on one of those discount Chinese Boston <> New York buses before. I was going 85mph in the center lane when one of their 50,000lb monsters came flying by on my left as if I was standing still. He was all over the lane, and when one of those buses hits the rumble strip at whats got to be at least 95mph, it doesn't make a pretty sound. He then swerved away from the rumble strip and almost hit a car in my lane, but luckily he didn't. Not to mention he had 54 passengers on board. Oh, and the turbulence following the bus didn't make my life any easier either.

I'm not usually one to call the cops, and probably wouldn't have if it was some riced Civic or soccer mom X5, but I had to make the exception for a giant VanHool T2145.
Or someone on a Bike - splat!
 
I've actually called the cops on one of those discount Chinese Boston <> New York buses before. I was going 85mph in the center lane when one of their 50,000lb monsters came flying by on my left as if I was standing still. He was all over the lane, and when one of those buses hits the rumble strip at whats got to be at least 95mph, it doesn't make a pretty sound. He then swerved away from the rumble strip and almost hit a car in my lane, but luckily he didn't. Not to mention he had 54 passengers on board. Oh, and the turbulence following the bus didn't make my life any easier either.

I'm not usually one to call the cops, and probably wouldn't have if it was some riced Civic or soccer mom X5, but I had to make the exception for a giant VanHool T2145.
Or someone on a Bike - splat!
 
The number of problems with this is simply ludicruous:

-you have to copy someone else's plate while driving, fun times at 80 MPH.
-Abusive users
-Imagine when anonymus gets a hold of this

and the worst offender of them all. Look closely:

http://img214.imageshack.**/img214/7136/drivemecrazyscreens.jpg

It has a bloody ranking system. Who in their right minds puts a ranking system on stuff like this. Stat whores won't abuse it at all </sarcasm>

Like many things, it'll never catch on.
 
Somebody please get a hold of Philip Inghelbrecht's license plate number and report him every chance they get.
 
Yeah if I see someone doing something that makes me think "this person is drunk" I would be tempted to report them.

I've called the police twice so far for drunk drivers. Both times I've tried to give them as much info as possible about the car, including the license plate, and what's happening (including the drunk's direction). And both times, it was nice to have the arresting officer call me back to thank me. Although, annoyingly, as a part-time policeman friend has told me, I could be called in to court as a witness if the drunk decides to sue the police, or me. So far, nothing.

So, after all that, definitely call it in, and make sure to stay far enough away that you're not involved.
 
I am seriously questioning the legality of this app. If its anonymous there is no way that it can be used against me as I have the right to face my accuser. If it's not anonymous who's to stop me from tracking the person down and making him/her pay with some bones or just slash their tires/key their cars?
 
Wow, this has to be the stupidest idea I've ever heard of. Highly abusable and ultimately unreliable. Any information gathered is highly flawed and impossible to substantiate. It's just another distraction while people are driving. Way to make the roads that much more dangerous! Good job! Fucking stupid.
 
My favorite part is that thr app's goal is to decrease accidents and save 700 lives a year... By promoting that people use their iPhones behind the wheel.
 
Well, thank god that the average tard can't hold a 7 character string in memory AND drive at the same time, so they'll have to fondle their phones. Also, heinous speeding makes it REALLY HARD to capture a license plate with human eyes. I guess we all just need to drive significantly faster than the flow of traffic.
 
On the texting/jotting down license plate thing - it's supposed to be by voice if I understand the OP correctly.


Also, I'm glad I live in a privacy-paranoid country for once.
 
On the texting/jotting down license plate thing - it's supposed to be by voice if I understand the OP correctly.


Also, I'm glad I live in a privacy-paranoid country for once.

Keyword "supposed to be"
I downloaded it and theres no voice feature.... At least not yet.
Checked my plate number. I'm clean. Deleted.
 
It's only been up a couple days right? It would be unlikely you got something yet.
 
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