Westport student’s ‘Drive Safe’ app praised

SEAL OF APPROVAL An Taoiseach Enda Kenny gave his approval to Andrew Irwin’s Drive Safe App when he met him recently.

Áine Ryan

WHETHER he will follow in the footsteps of the late Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg is probably the subject of a Google algorithm but third-level student, Andrew Irwin is happy enough that his ‘Drive Safe’ app has already had 4,500 downloads since its launch last October.
Indeed, with 1,350 people from 99 countries – from Ecuador to The Philippines – keeping it on their phones, the 24-year-old Computing and Software Development student from Westport is not in a hurry – quite yet –  to buy that Lamborghini he would love.
First he has some marketing and further development of his new product to do. ‘Drive Safe’ is ‘One click to safety’ and the GMIT student admits to The Mayo News from the outset that his Mammy was the one with the brainwave.
“Around Christmas of 2014, my Mum, Mairéad suggested the idea, saying it would make driving much safer. She was saying it would be a great app to launch my career!” Andrew smiles. “At the time I was helping a friend with a tourism app.”
We are chatting over coffee in his Dad’s café – well, talking shop – Christy’s Harvest.
“I developed it outside my course work. I did ask my Business teacher for advice and he thought it was a great idea. It has effectively been a year to bring it to this point and I thought it was pretty cool last night seeing my app in Spanish. The next translation will be Portuguese because a lot of people in South America speak that language …. I think there are about 66 languages I can use in Google Translate,” he explains to this Mayo News hack, who remembers morse code and wind-up phones.   

Stress-free driving
“SO what is so different about Drive Safe? Is it not the same as just putting your phone on ‘Silent’ when heading off on a journey?,” I ask. The answer: “You could put your phone on ‘Silent’ but the person phoning or texting wouldn’t know you were driving and they could keep ringing or texting you. One of the main ideas of my app is that it doesn’t distract you when you are driving and it doesn’t vibrate. And, importantly, it let’s the caller know that you are driving.
“One of my lecturers told me about a girl who was killed in a car crash after she got a call and reached over into the floor well of the passenger side to take the phone out of her bag and the car swerved,” Andrew says.  
He explains: “So you are heading off with a carload of noisy children to the beach or on your own for an appointment in Ballina, Belmullet or even Dublin. Turn on your Drive Safe app. If someone calls you, it will beep and let them know: ‘I’m driving and I will contact you when possible’.”
“But will hands-free not do from a safety perspective?” “My app is aimed at people who do not have hands-free or bluetooth and particularly at those who want time-out from their phones and don’t want to answer them when driving.
“But aren’t there apps like that already?” “There are similar apps but they read out the message when it comes in, which can put a certain pressure on the receiver to answer it while driving.”
“What is its best feature?”
“It has an ‘auto-start’ feature, which is enabled when the car starts and its sensors detect speed. If you happen to be a passenger and you have the app, you can simply turn it off.”