Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

Ask Patty Goes Mobile with Mobile Tattletale!

posted by AskPatty - Auto Advice
Monday, April 18, 2011 at 4:45pm CDT

Ask Patty is always watchful for the hottest things that you, our readers, are going to be crazy about, and now we've partnered with our first mobile app. This smartphone app doesn't help you decide where to eat, or connect you to all your social media, nor does it have anything to do with birds, angry or otherwise. This app has only one purpose - to stop texting while driving. Intrigued? I thought you might be.

Hit the jump for details.

Okay, so here's how this works: This is an app for moms with teen drivers. Today's teens have learned how to drive a car with a phone in their hands, and distracted driving statistics nationwide are terrifying. Lives are being lost, and laws against cellphones while driving don't help the problem. Why? Because they don't deter drivers from using their phones, they just force them to hide them while driving, causing a more severe distraction than simply using the phone would be.

This app, which retails for $4.99 per year, is installed on your phone, and on your teen driver's phone. Once setup, it uses the GPS in that phone to determine if the teen is traveling over a given threshold of speed (the default is 20mph), and if so, disables the ability to send and receive texts. Texters who try to text the phone get an auto-response set by you (a la "I'm driving right now, try again later"), and if you so choose, you can receive text alerts if the phone is used in the car.

Plus - because moving 20+mph doesn't always mean you're driving, there is a "Passenger Mode" which, with parent's approval, temporarily disables the Mobile TattleTale controls. This app is greatly customizable, so whether you want total texting lockdown, or for the more reasonable teen drivers, softer controls, this app will do it for you.

The AskPatty.com homepage features our very own AskPatty branded version of the app - you can get it there. Also, a portion of these proceeds will go to benefit United Spinal Association, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit membership organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of disabled and paralyzed Americans and their families for over 60 years.

Kaeli Gardner AskPatty.com, Inc.

Connect with Us

View Our Compliance Statement

Subscribe to our RSS Feed

Subscribe to our E-News

AskPatty® and Certified Female Friendly® are U.S. registered trademarks owned by AskPatty.com, Inc.