A Major Local Initiative Launched To Tackle Distracted Driving Due to Mobile Phones

Doha November 3rd, 2014: The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) hosted an event to announce the official launch of Salamtek – A dedicated national initiative and consortium focusing on developing, deploying, and promoting innovative solutions and applications tackling Distracted Driving due to the use of mobile phones while driving. A number of key announcements were made in the event that was attended by  executives, directors and VIPs from many national institutions in Qatar.

Distracted driving is one of the major causes of road accidents globally and in Qatar. The use of mobile phones while driving is a main cause of distracted driving. Therefore, interest in introducing effective and practical solutions has been rising globally and locally.

In support of this initiative, QMIC has led the creation of Salamtek Consortium in partnership with  key national organizations including: the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning (MMUP),Traffic Directorate of the Ministry of Interior (Muroor), Ooredoo, Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), and Road Safety Studies Center (RSSC) of Qatar University. Discussions are ongoing with other entities who showed interest in joining the consortium.  In collaboration with these major and governmental organizations, QMIC hopes to use  this initiative and consortium to improve road safety in Qatar through the development, deployment, and promoting the use of intelligent solutions that limit phone use while driving.

Mr. Abdulla Al-Talib, Chairman of QMIC said, “Distracted Driving is a Dilemma which we need to control and reduce. Delivering locally-built innovative solutions in support of driver anti-distraction is an important milestone towards achieving safer driving in Qatar. We are committed to putting our R&D efforts and building national partnerships to make a great dent in the growing danger of distracted driving”.

As part of its focus on addressing distracted driving, QMIC has dedicated significant R&D resources in the last 2 years to develop solutions and applications for different phone platforms. Consequently, today QMIC announced the introduction of a complete portfolio of solutions and applications that will be deployed in Qatar over the next few weeks, and then outside Qatar at a later stage.  The solutions are optimized and designed to serve the needs of different user segments including: consumers, enterprises, and families. This will hopefully be a stepping-stone to support the creation an eco-system nurturing a new culture of safe driving in Qatar.

Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director (CEO) of QMIC said, “Given the complexity of the distracted driving problem and the fact that no single effective solution exists, QMIC has successfully executed  an R&D strategy to deliver a portfolio of solutions and enabling technologies that will support the needs of the local market. We will work closely with our key national partners to deliver these solutions to the local market in a staged manner and in a way that satisfies the needs of the end users. Our significant progress in introducing solutions focused on distracted driving, coupled with our leadership in the areas of traffic info systems and telematics services, will allow us to tackle road safety from multiple angles and eventually create a knowledge-based industry in the process”.

The Salamtek solutions and applications are focused on managing driver distraction in a user-friendly manner. The different solutions will seamlessly change phone behavior above certain speeds, eliminating any distracting elements caused by mobile phone while driving.

The Salamtek Personal version is a free mobile application and available for download from Google App store, major enhancements to increase user adoption through introducing national reward mechanisms and  gamification concepts will be available to the public in Nov or Dec 2014.

Salamtek Enterprise is optimized for use by enterprises and government entities. It comes in the form of a mobile and web applications allowing companies to enforce phone usage policies on their drivers, as well as giving them a full overview on the quality of driving within the organization. Managers can have access to an online we application where they can see how their drivers are complying with the company’s set safe phone usage policies.

Salamtek Family is optimized for parents. It is also a combination of mobile and web applications giving parents piece of mind once their dependents leave the house by managing their phone usage while driving. This app is also extremely useful for those with domestic drivers, eliminating the phone distraction while driving.

In addition to Android-based solutions for all these segments, innovative iOS-based solutions will be introduced late in 2014 or early in 2015.

About QMIC

The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC), located at the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), is the first independent regional innovations center that was created to leverage the use of emerging mobility technologies and lifestyle in developing and deploying intelligent solutions and smart applications for use in a number of markets including Transportation, Road Safety, Environment, and Smart City Platforms. QMIC was founded with the objective of filling the existing gap in the region for institutions focusing on applied research and solutions delivery with the aim of creating local knowledge-based ventures.

For further information please contact:

[email protected], +974 44592702