Location Labs and T-Mobile team up for safer driving

Texting while driving has been a thorn in the industry’s side since SMSing became a big deal some years back but location-as-a-service firm Location Labs based in the Bay Area says it is working with T-Mobile to provide its Android smartphones with a safer solution – DriveSmart Plus.
The DriveSmart Plus app purports to be the industry’s first carrier-grade service to help prevent texting while driving and is a subscription-based, opt-in service that automatically detects when a handset user is driving and sets the phone into a ‘Driving Mode’.
Once activated, the app disables most texting and calling features on one’s handset while the car is in motion.

T-Mobile’s Torrie Dorrell, vice president of applications, content and games said the carrier felt strongly about responsible phone use while driving and said the app was “designed to keep our customers, their loved ones and the road safe.”
Meanwhile, Tasso Roumeliotis, CEO of Location Labs said his firm was continuing to invest heavily in mobile personal safety services, “for which we are seeing huge demand from consumers and families.”
The app doesn’t simply ignore incoming calls or texts, instead, it sends an auto-response SMS to the person who phoned or texted to say the receiver is currently driving and is therefore unavailable.
The only exception is in an emergency situation where DriveSmart Plus lets users override ‘Driving Mode’, although parents of children who have the app installed on their phone can choose to be notified by text message or e-mail when the override occurs and can view phone usage during the override from the DriveSmart Web interface.
At the moment, only T-Mobile’s LG Optimus T supports the app, but we’re told more devices are coming soon.