ATLANTA — An Atlanta entrepreneur's company hopes to solve the growing demand for safer cell phone use in cars with a key that cuts off the cell phone when it turns on the car.
John Fischer and two partners launched Try Safety First Inc. in 2007. Though based in Kentucky, the company may move to Atlanta.
Try Safety First's product is the Owner Compliance Key, or OCK. The device, part of a vehicle's key, turns a cell phone's antenna on and off like a light switch, preventing outbound calls, and sending inbound calls directly to voicemail. Emergency calls to 911 still work. The OCK also requires seat-belt compliance to start the engine.
The OCK's use is voluntary and determined by the owner — it is to be used in a spare key — and is effective when a vehicle's transmission is in a gear other than park. Because it works only in the area around the driver's seat, passengers can use phones while the vehicle is in motion.
"It was designed with parents and employers in mind," says Fischer, noting that teenage drivers are particularly vulnerable to crashes when distracted by cell phones or text messaging.
The company has a temporary, low-cost provisional patent for its technology and has invested about $250,000 into the business already. The company is trying to raise $2.75 million, in a tough investment climate.
There are competitors, as well, in what is a potentially huge market. Other companies are developing different products, using different technologies, to accomplish a similar goal.
Try Safety First would like to have the OCK installed at the factory by automakers, rather than sell it on the aftermarket. That's been complicated by automakers' investment in hands-free communications equipment.
But Fischer, citing studies, says, "There is no real cognitive difference in the distraction created between hand-held and hands-free devices."
Legislation isn't the full answer, he says, because people flaunt laws that ban phone use. The National Safety Council says technology along with education and legislation are needed.
"We're encouraging inventors and entrepreneurs like John to go full steam ahead," says David Teater, senior director at the NSC.
Fischer, 46, has an accounting and corporate executive background. He moved to Atlanta and developed a safety timer for indoor tanning in the early 1990s and has since owned a tanning salon business. Partners Hap Nguyen, an electrical engineer, and Fred Wenz, a 22-year UPS employee, are longtime friends.
Wenz, drawing on his first-hand experience on the road for UPS, told Fischer about the dangers of cell phone use and distracted drivers. Fischer ran with the concept and enlisted Nguyen, their technology expert, to engineer the device.
David Markiewicz writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail: dmarkiewicz(at)ajc.com.