As one of the leading rugged computer providers, Getac offers extensive rugged computing product lines and serves a wide range of vertical markets.
Twenty-five percent of all deaths on EU roads involve a work vehicle. Nearly 35,000 serious injuries happen each year involving forklift accidents in the United States alone. It only takes one vehicular accident to impact your organization severely.
One of the most effective ways to minimize driving accidents is lessening driving distractions. Studies estimate these incidents are involved in 80% of all car accidents. The rugged computer you have mounted in the cabin could be a significant distraction when driving a forklift or delivery truck.
We may be aware of the distraction dangers of using these devices while driving, but human nature is sloppy. We’re all eager to get our work done faster, and we’re bad judges of our abilities to drive and multitask. Approximately 70% of large-truck accidents happen when drivers do something other than driving. Reaching for an object while driving also increases car crash odds eightfold.
Dongle-based solutions are available that blank the screens and/or lock the keyboards of vehicle-mounted devices. However, they have a weakness – the dongle. Users must adequately insert the dongle to work. The driver can remove the device at any time. It creates a damage risk on an otherwise rugged device. And what if it falls out or gets lost? Getac has a better solution that eliminates the dongle while providing additional benefits.
The Getac Driving Safety Utility is a proprietary software-based application that eliminates extraneous visual distraction generated by a vehicle-mounted Getac rugged device. It works through display blanking while also locking the touchscreen, keyboard (if applicable), and other physical buttons while the vehicle is in motion. This restores normal device functions when the vehicle stops. And it does this automatically – indoors or out.
Once a user installs and mounts a compatible Getac device with the software, the utility automatically blanks and unblanks the device. This happens when the vehicle is in motion and stops, respectively, without requiring any action from the driver. Furthermore, when used on the road (i.e., in outdoor mode), the utility switches between GPS and the motion sensor. This is to determine when the vehicle is in motion automatically.
The Getac Driving Safety Utility has modes for outdoor and indoor use. In outdoor mode (i.e., in a truck, van, or other road vehicles), the utility defaults to GPS for motion detection, switching to the device’s internal motion sensor when the vehicle enters a tunnel, warehouse, or some other obstruction or situation that weakens the GPS signal. In indoor mode (i.e., on a forklift or cart), the motion sensor takes a more practical approach when traveling at the reduced speeds of a warehouse or freight yard.
Eliminating the dongle is a significant advantage. One of Getac’s customers, a global automotive brand, deployed this utility at one of their production plants. They had previously been having problems with breakage and dongle removal by drivers. Getac’s solution eliminated this while enabling the easy centralized deployment of the software and management of the screen blanking functions.
Device users cannot add to, change, or deactivate the Getac Driving Safety Utility while any functions remain active while a vehicle is in motion. Such instances include voice communications or GPS functions. These operations remain strictly controlled by authorized IT administrators. Admins can add to, configure, and customize these functions as needed in a centralized fashion, as a batch or individually.
Upon request, Getac can remove the mounting requirement for blanking in motion, enabling the screen to be blanked while a person is walking. This drastically reduces the worker's temptation to look down on the tablet while moving about on foot in a warehouse, parking lot, construction site, or other environments that have accident/injury risks.
The Getac Driving Safety Utility has no subscription fees or other hidden costs, just a one-time low-cost perpetual license. It is also compatible with a wide variety of Getac tablets or laptops currently in service, both Windows and Android-based – and is available now for a free trial.
As one of the leading rugged computer providers, Getac offers extensive rugged computing product lines and serves a wide range of vertical markets.
Subscribe below to be kept up to date on the latest industry and technology trends. We will send you a monthly blog round-up direct to your inbox.
