Car Apps Test Tracking of Drivers
By Douglas MacMillan of Wall Street Journal
Driver Eva Nunez recently was driving for Shuddle, a ride-hailing service for families, when she says she slammed on the brakes to avoid a dog.
The dog was unharmed, but Ms Nunez later was reprimanded by Shuddle, which detected the sudden stop using the accelerometer sensor in her smartphone. In an e-mailed report that details her driving performance each week, the company noted the incident’s location and warned her to brake more gradually.
The same smartphones used by more than a million drivers of ride-hailing services to pick up passengers and collect fares are now tracking when they speed, cut corners, brake suddenly or send texts while at the wheel.
Several companies including Uber Technologies are testing ways to collect this data by uniting sensor readings in phones with geolocation data and traffic patterns.
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