Doha, June 5th, 2013: The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC) at the Qatar Sience and Technology Park (QSTP) and the Ministry of Municipality Affairs and Planning (MMUP) launched a smart mobility initiative and applications that help improve road safety in Qatar. During an event held at QSTP, QMIC and MMUP introduced “Salamtek”, an android application supporting driver anti-distraction by intelligently limiting the phone usage while driving. This is an important step to help enhance awareness about the importance of road safety for the people of Qatar and the region, and give them the solution to help make a difference.
Qatar witnesses a large number of accidents yearly , many of them fatal. The Ministry of Interior published the number of accidents in 2011 to be 3780, including 205 deaths. In 2012, there were 4218 accidents, including 204 deaths.
With the increase of vehicles, these numbers are guaranteed to increase. These are extremely radical numbers that must be decreased with the help of local R&D institutions and the participation of the rest of the population.
Many of these accidents are caused from overspeeding lane violations,, driver distraction, etc. To tackle this issue, QMIC through Masarak, is concentrating on road safety by working towards achieving safe roads, safe vehicles, safe drivers and safe infrastructure.
Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, Executive Director of QMIC said, “As the regional national leader in the areas of Intelligent Mobility and Road Safety, we have expanded our Masarak portfolio with rich applications and services that are optimized for cutomers in our reagion. Today is a milestone for all of us, as we have created the first Anti-Distraction mobile application made in the Arabian Gulf region. We hope that drivers in Qatar and the region join us in using this application to help prevent potential accidents. This is just the beginning for us and we plan to expand our anti-distraction potfolio of applications and services over the next few months”.
Road Safety is a large segment of Masarak (which is jointly owned by QMIC and MMUP) and is aimed towards keeping roads safe through driver performance management, anti-distracton, incident detection, emergency/assistance supportive services, and intelligent school bus monitoring systems. Masarak is a comprehensive Intelligent Transport, Logistics Management, and Road Safety services & applications that are fully developed in Qatar and optimized for serving the needs of different sectors in Qatar and the region.
Eng. Ibrahim Abbas, the Director of Transportation & Infrastructure Planning at MMUP, “We are very pleased that our joint Masarak solution started to deliver applications and services that directly address the important road safety segment. We have the confidence that partnerships between government entities like MMUP and innovations institutions like QMIC represent an excellent model for addressing the challenges of Qatar and the region”.
Seeking safe roads and safe drivers and within the initiative formerly mentioned, QMIC, today launched the Android mobile application, “Salamtek”. “Salamtek” is one component of a much larger initiative to help support driver anti-distraction and increase road safety.
“Salamtek” is a smart application (currently available for Android phones) that will limit the usage of the phone while driving so that the driver focuses on the road. The user can set the speed upon which the application will start blocking, and the time interval through which the application will operate. In addition, the user can set up to three VIP numbers and three mobile applications which s/he can access even through the blocking criteria. The application will keep a log of all calls blocked and callers will be automatically notified once blocking happens because of driving conditions.
Mr. Abdulaziz AlKhal, Director of Masarak said, “Salamtek is the beginning of what is an elaborate initiative to help support driver anti-distraction and road safety. We hope that this will put a dent in the continuously increasing numbers of deaths caused by car accidents. This is a solution that QMIC, MMUP and Masarak are proud to introduce”.
About QMIC:
The Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC), is an applied research and development center founded by Qatar University in collaboration with and at the Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) to leverage the use of emerging mobility technologies and lifestyle in creating and deploying intelligent solutions and smart applications for use in a number of markets including Transportation, Road Safety, Environment, and Healthcare. QMIC was founded with the objective of filling the existing gap in the region for institutions focusing on applied research and solutions delivery with the aim of creating local knowledge-based ventures.
For further information please contact
[email protected] , +974 44592702