Innovation That Matters

Smartphone game turns kids into helpful back-seat drivers

Publishing & Media

Mr Bear Driver teaches kids about traffic safety and helps them request safer driving from their parents.

We have seen copilot tools enabling parents to ensure that their newly qualified teens are driving safely, but now a Romanian smartphone game called Mr Bear Driver inverts those roles. The app is designed to be played by kids from the back-seat during car journeys, to teach them about traffic safety and encourage them to spur on safe driving from their parents.

mrbeardriver-copilot-road-safety-driving-game

The anti-boredom game is activated when players are in a moving vehicle. It sees kids navigating a school bus full of animals, picking up passengers and points along the way. But what makes the game interesting is that the play uses GPS to replicate the speed of the actual car the player is in. If the car exceeds the speed limit, it prompts the child to tell the driver to slow down. If the car fails to slow down, the player loses points and eventually loses the game. The idea is that children will learn about road safety and simultaneously influence their parents to stay within the speed limits.

The game was developed by the Automobile Club of Romania and Publicis Romania for the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, as part of their Junior Copilot program. It will soon be available through the App store and Google Play. How else could children’s play be used to encourage better adult behavior?

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Website: www.plimba-ursul.ro