JayMac: the new anti-road rage app that could help us all get along better
Jun 19, 2019, 4:52 PM | Updated: 5:03 pm
Photo: Kickstarter
DISCLAIMER: The following is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the views of KSL Newsradio or its ownership.
RoadWayve is designed to be an anti-road-rage device that mounts on the rearview window of your car and can communicate messages to drivers who may be enraged by something you’ve done while driving.
John Stanley, CEO and founder of MOD Worldwide, and his team created RoadWayve. He describes how it works:
Powered either via the RoadWayve remote (that sits on your dashboard), Wayvemote, or your smartphone, RoadWayve can communicate messages to drivers around you. Such as: asking to merge into their lane, or apologizing for cutting a driver off. You can also thank drivers for letting you pass them, or ask them to turn down their high-beam headlights, and the RoadWayve app even lets you add custom messages.
I can tell you it definitely makes you feel better when some driver makes a mistake and they wave. I try to wave because nobody is perfect when they drive. Of course, I wave, and I get the finger.
I had an idea like this about 15 years ago. I wanted paddles that have different messages and you just hold it up to the window.
This new device allows for custom messages – but I do think that comes with challenges of its own. I think that might make the road rage worse by letting a driver send negative messages, instead of positive ones, like: I’m sorry for cutting you off.
But sometimes I want to be educational. For instance, you can’t have a trailer on your vehicle and drive in farthest two left lanes. I see this all the time. I’ve asked the UHP if this also means tractor-trailers, and they told me, yes, any kind of trailer. There are road signs that warn against the same thing. But they don’t seem to be working well enough.
So, I’d like to educate people as I drive along the highways and freeways with this sign informing violators:
“You’re doing it wrong, stop breaking the law, you idiot.”
Working 8 hours a day is good for your mental health
New research finds up to eight hours of paid work a week significantly boosts mental health and life satisfaction. But researchers found little evidence that any more hours — including a full five-day week — provide further increases in wellbeing.
I like the idea of a mandated 8-hour workweek, so we are all in our top mental health condition. And not one hour more! Let the robots do the rest.
The Dominican Republic is not more dangerous
Despite the seven Americans who died so far this year in the Dominican Republic, the U.S. State Department, which has tallied all deaths of U.S. citizens abroad from so-called unnatural causes since 2007, says nothing menacing is happening in the Caribbean nation. Fifteen Americans died through June in both 2011 and 2015 of causes like auto accidents, suicides, homicides and drownings. In 2009, 14 Americans died through June. In 2016, the number was 13.
Complicating the issue is this recent news item:
- 47 of 114 Jimmy Buffett fans from Oklahoma became violently ill at a hotel in the Dominican Republic. The sickened “Parrotheads” on the trip suffered “crippling” vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, fevers, chills and dizziness during the trip to Punta Cana on the eastern tip of the island in April, Buffett fan Dana Flowers told People magazine.
Also, the CDC warns would-be tourists that drinking the country’s tap water can open them to risk of hepatitis A, typhoid and cholera.
But we are not seeing direct links or threads between the deaths and sicknesses in the D.R.
We see this happen in the news when there is a major crane accident. And then for the next three weeks, you’ll see many stories on crane accidents. It’s not that there are more crane accidents; only that reporters are focusing on crane accidents. And the more reporters dig into crane accidents, the more news they are going to find. But so far, there is no evidence that I know of connecting these deaths and illnesses.
So, yeah, even in paradise, people die.
Jay Mcfarland hosts the JayMac News Show, weekdays from 12:30 to 3 p.m. on KSL Newsradio, as well as the fictional podcast, Hosts of Eden. KSL Newsradio is part of Bonneville Media and based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
