Using a cell phone while driving is an increasingly common—and terrifying—habit that has quickly risen to become a leading cause of traffic accidents.
Whether you're a civilian on a daily commute or a professional truck driver hauling a long-distance load, the reasons are clear. Most of us automatically reach for our phone the moment a message arrives, and then fumble to answer incoming texts immediately. Here's the problem with that: When you check a message while traveling at 55 m.p.h., you end up driving blind for about the length of a football field.
But just as technology created this problem, it can also provide a solution, according to Dolphin Technologies GmbH, a Vienna, Austria-based startup that has launched a cryptocurrency called "Mobilio."
Drivers who use the Mobilio app are rewarded for not using their mobile phone while driving, accumulating valuable credits for safe miles driven, according to Dolphin CEO Harald Trautsch. Users will soon be able to spend Mobilio tokens in the "Mobilio Marketplace"—which will include insurance companies, retailers, and other participants—or trade them on cryptocurrency exchanges for tangible value in the "real" world, the company says.
