BRADENTON, Fla., July 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As the carnage
continues, the American public screams for change, and the
government, cops and U.S. realpolitik do next to nothing. Americans
young and old are dying horrific, unnecessary deaths – mostly the
young, they're still as clueless, ambitious and boundless as ever –
at the guillotine of technology and a smart phone-obsessed society,
one that's been created, bought and sold right here in the good
'ole U.S. of A.
"Yes, we are in essence killing our own children, when we give
them all these fun little phone toys to grow up with, then hand
them the keys to a two-ton vehicle, and tell them to 'Don't
Text-and-Drive,' " said Chris
Tunmore, co-founder of The Smart Dash, a Florida-based startup set to take flight this
summer. Dead in its sights: the texting-and-driving scourge
plaguing America.
"Things have to change. Immediately. Texting-and-driving has now
become one of the most important issues of safety, in our everyday
lives, all across the U.S., and is the very reason for The
Smart Dash," Tunmore said.
Enter The Smart Dash (www.thesmartdash.com), created and
designed in Florida by Tunmore and
his colleagues, a team of British/American engineers, targeting a
retrofit of the mammoth U.S. used-car market, estimated at between
200 million to 250 million vehicles. The target: any, and every,
used vehicle in America not currently equipped with the latest
voice-activated technology.
The Smart Dash is an online, portable, dash-mounted and
safety-first solution being developed by a seasoned team including
co-founders Tunmore, Andrew Britt, a
mechanical engineer, and Roger
Pellew, a business development professional. The co-founders
of The Smart Dash represent a wide spectrum of business interests,
experience and knowledge.
Together, the partners are established entrepreneurs with a
proven track record, having provided a leading chain of national
retailers' ink cartridge recycling solutions. Individually, they
have each developed a number of successful businesses, including
one of the nation's premier plastic manufacturing companies.
The Tech: Android and iOS
The Smart Dash will be available to both Apple and Android smart
phone users. The system coordinates smart phones and vehicle
features into a single-screen Android tablet display of
applications, mounted on the vehicle dashboard. The Smart Dash
delivers a comprehensive range of voice-activated applications,
while providing a safer eye-level information display.
Features include Voice-Activated Phone Calls, Voice Messaging,
Text Messaging, Enhanced GPS Navigation, a Media Player, Engine
Health Monitoring, Accident Assistance, a Driver Behavior Log along
with many other standard features. The windshield or
dashboard-mounted telescopic arm allows for quick and easy portable
tablet installation and removal, with a power source provided by a
standard DC connection.
"This twisted text-me-now ecosystem – this smart phone
obsession, and the 24/7 web world that feeds into it – is now
taking our children's very lives. There can be no more excuses,"
Tunmore said.
Tunmore designed The Smart Dash (www.thesmartdash.com) with an
engineer's precision, an entrepreneur's vision, and a father's
heart: A serial offender, he realized the hypocrisy of lecturing
his teenager over texting-and-driving.
The Smart Dash carries an array of potential other uses,
including the transport industry and for fleet vehicles. The
ginormous gap of technology between the U.S. used-vehicle market
and what new vehicle manufacturers are putting out "presents an
enormous opportunity for us as entrepreneurs, as parents, and as a
business," Tunmore said. "But which comes first? In the eyes of The
Smart Dash, it's people. It's a conscious decision made by
people."
First Partner: T-Mobile USA Inc.
The Smart Dash is a start-up, but its co-founders and
partners are most certainly not, as evidenced by the first
corporate partner to step up, T-Mobile USA Inc., one of the fastest-growing carriers
in the U.S. Based in Washington
state, T-Mobile is distinguished by its policy of not
charging for data overage.
T-Mobile USA will be providing
a pre-loaded data package. A Kickstarter campaign is poised to
finance the final steps of software development and product
manufacturing, slated to begin in accordance with the launch of a
national media and PR campaign. Tunmore is scheduled to appear live
on The FOX Business Network (FBN) today at 2
p.m. EST on the "Money with Melissa Francis" program to
announce The Smart Dash Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thesmartdash/2092724330?token=8cf5c8d4
Says Fred Hifko Jr. of T-Mobile
USA Inc.: "What we see in The
Smart Dash, is something we've been seeking for quite some time,
which is: a solution to stop the carnage. We look forward to a very
exciting launch of The Smart Dash, and the ability of T-Mobile to
continue to engage in the conversation of all things
safety-minded."
Production of The Smart Dash is pegged for early 2015, with all
manufacturing to take place in America: each system will come with
The Smart Dash app, an interface, universal mount, power cable and
adaptor. The pricetag for the proprietary system and app starts at
a Kickstarter-early contributor discount of $195, retailing for $260. Tiered level of packages include a 7-inch
Android tablet for $425, $395 early contributor on Kickstarter. The
rear-cam feature sells separately for $100.
The Urgency: No More Excuses
Every day, the stories, and the statistics, pour in: There's a
texting-and-driving incident every 75 seconds in America; drivers
are between three to 23X as distracted while texting; there are
3,000+ accidents every year logged by the Ohio State Highway Patrol
as "driver-distracted."
No segment of society, including law enforcement is immune: An
L.A. County Sheriff's deputy drills a bicyclist in Calabasis, while
texting. The Mayor of Oakland,
California, gets busted twice.
At offices south of Tampa, The
Smart Dash is poised to take flight, armed with a voice-activated
suite of safety and security. The partners are engineers, and
entrepreneurs. But fathers first. "The clock is ticking. She's
already driving. And I'm still texting-and-driving," Tunmore says
of his 17-year-old daughter.
"We are businessmen, with a product, yes; but with a greater
mission: there's a better way. And people – our family members, our
neighbors, our friends – don't have to die like this," Britt
said.
Contacts:
|
Mr. Chris
Tunmore
|
Mr. Andrew
Britt
|
Mr. Roger
Pellew
|
Co-Founder, The Smart
Dash
|
Co-Founder, The Smart
Dash
|
Co-Founder, The Smart
Dash
|
2331 63rd
Avenue East
|
2331 63rd
Avenue East
|
2331 63rd
Avenue East
|
Bradenton, FL
34203
|
Bradenton, FL
34203
|
Bradenton, FL
34202
|
(585)
489-0553
|
(941)
302-6041
|
(407)
873-3789
|
chris@thesmartdash.com
|
andrew@thesmartdash.com
|
roger@thesmartdash.com
|
SOURCE The Smart Dash