Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Welcome back to the Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. [upbeat music] Hello, listeners, and welcome back to the Peggy Smedley Show. 0:15 My next guest founded his company in two thousand and nine after a personal experience of a loss caused by a distracted driver. 0:22 His company offers a network level solution to prevent mobile phone distraction while driving. Please welcome Scott Tibbitts, co, uh, founder and CEO of Katasi. Scott, welcome to the show. Peggy, thank you. 0:38 It's good to be on. I appreciate you, uh, finding time for me. Yeah. You know, Scott, I'm glad that you're here. 0:44 I, uh, I'm really thrilled that you've, uh, created an app that I think, uh, is designed to, uh, help people keep their eyes on the road and hands on the wheel, and I'd love for you to talk about, um... I know the story. 0:56 I've done some research on you, and I think it's a very interesting one. So I'd love you to tell our listeners what kind of moved you to create a solution. 1:04 Uh, I think it's a unique, uh, you know, it's a personal tragedy, but I think listeners need to understand that sometimes things happen, but I hope it doesn't happen to them like it happened to you. 1:15 But, you know, we need to get people to understand they gotta focus on the road, right? Abso-- Yeah, absolutely. And I did come by this, um, through that, uh, event that you're talking about. 1:27 I'm a technical entrepreneur. 1:29 My first company was actually a company making motors for spacecraft like the Mars Rovers, and I sold that company in two thousand and eight and was looking for what's next, and I went to visit a, a vice president of a company I was looking to work for, and I drove through an intersection. 1:44 There was some glass on the road. Didn't think much of it. 1:46 Went in to visit with Dave Super, and they said he'd been killed two hours before in that intersection I'd just driven through by somebody who was texting and driving, and that was the moment. 1:57 It was the, the light bulb, epiphanic moment that led to, "We gotta do something about this." Got together, uh, other entrepreneurs and, uh, that's, that's how it all got started back in two thousand and nine. 2:08 And, and you know what, Scott? I, I know that most people think, "Well, it's not gonna happen to me," but there you go. You know, you drive by an intersection and you think, "Wow." 2:17 You know, a few seconds earlier, a few minutes earlier, or however that is, could that have been you? 2:22 You know, you get somebody and you say it, it, it happens that quick, and I think people don't realize you're in a vehicle, you need to be focused on driving, right? I mean, isn't that the point of your app right now? 2:34 Talk about that. [laughs] Well, the... You know, it's interesting because back in, whatever, two thousand eleven, it was adults saying, "Those darn teens, those millennials, they're using their phones." 2:44 [laughs] That has completely changed. And when I'm... when we're in board meetings, when we're talking about this, i-it takes about ten minutes before pretty much everybody in the room says, "I need this. 2:55 I'm gonna kill somebody." It's, it's something now that pervades more, you know, moms and dads than it does the teens. Uh, yeah, the problem is everybody says, "Well, this one won't kill me. Oh, this one won't kill me." 3:08 And then that adds up, and pretty soon so, you know, pretty soon there is something that happens that's tragic. 3:14 It-- I think what's, what the problem is, we thought we were making progress with the idea that it was the teens we had to worry about that you just said, but I think it's just so happens that as adults, the more we, we have to be connected, we find that in the car we've always gotta be connected. 3:30 We, you know, we have it on our nightstand. You can't go on vacation anymore. That, that device has to be with us twenty-four/seven. It has to be when we have meals with our family, you know? 3:39 I mean, it's just, it's just that ding and, and that's what I was just telling Lisa in the last segment at the National Safety Council. W-what... 3:47 Are there anything that you've discovered, you know, that's counterintuitive, that surprised you, that you've learned through all of this? 3:54 I mean, I just think people don't get it, and I, I'm frustrated by that because someone like you who-who's changed their life because of an experience of going through an intersection and having to meet someone that might have been a part of your company and said, "You know what? 4:09 I'm gonna change it because I've been moved by losing someone I might have been working with." Yeah. Well, you know, building on your earlier point, we do anecdotal focus groups whenever the FedEx guy comes in. 4:22 [laughs] And we'll say to him, "Hey, take... You know, you, you look into a lot of cars. Who are, who are the mo-- You know, is it, is it a problem, and who's the, the source of the problem?" 4:30 And they all are horrified by the amount of people that are texting and driving. And interestingly enough, they say the teens are, are the least of a, the problem. 4:38 Uh, moms and dads, uh, men and women tend to be the ones that they see far beyond the teens texting and driving. Uh, they tend to say women are maybe a little more, doing this a little more than men. 4:51 Uh, but that piece of it's been a surprise to people. It isn't the millennials, it's us. You know, it's you and me. That's one thing that, that's come out. 5:00 Uh, the other thing is just this, um, you know, the, the numbers are so much worse than people think they are. If you talk to- Oh, yeah. They don't report them... a highway patrol and you... Yeah, I'm sorry. Say again? 5:12 I was gonna say they're not reporting what you think you hear. We're not getting the true numbers. They're not reporting. 5:17 And the reason is you have an accident and the, the state patrol asks you why it happened, and it's like, "Well, I had sun in my eyes," or, "Squirrel ran in front of me." 5:25 You know, people never say, "Well, I was texting." 5:27 And so, you know, we're finding when we talk to state patrol that they, they believe that thirty to thirty-five percent of accidents now are, are phone related, far beyond drinking and driving. 5:37 It, it really is the most dangerous activity we've got out there that's causing accidents now. So I always tell people I watch a lot of people, and it's amazing the things people do in the cars. 5:50 But talk about what your app actually is doing now. What are you actually helping? You're, you're telling them, "Hey, you know what? You'll get the message later." 5:58 Describe what you're doing for, for people with your, with, with your solution. Yeah.And actually, you know, everybody calls it an app, but the reason it works is- It's not an app? What is it? Okay. 6:08 Because it's, it's not, and this comes to the Internet of Things. Sounds good. 6:12 When you connect a vehicle to the cloud, whether it's OnStar or some module you put in or because you bought a new car, uh, our software is a s- is software as a service, and it picks- Oh, good... 6:23 up that the car is moving, and it goes, "Okay. Well, you know, Peggy's car is moving. Who might be driving it?" Fifteen seconds later, we find out. We determine who the driver is. 6:34 Yep, Peggy's car is moving, and Peggy's the driver, and then what we're doing is we're notifying the provider, like we're... you know, Sprint, and saying, "Hey, Sprint, Peggy's driving. 6:43 Turn off the content that could kill her." And so Sprint holds back, uh, you know, Snapchat and Instagram but can let through navigation and Spotify. So there's really nothing on the phone. 6:57 It just stops it at the source, so it's, it just works. It isn't a blocking. It just makes those capabilities go away. You know what? That's probably the best thing I've heard so far because I like that idea. 7:09 I didn't realize it was actually when, when I saw that you... if you're using a software. So can you do it with any of the social media that's out there? 7:17 Because it's doing a software as a service, so it's not people have to worry. They don't have to deal with the hassles. It's a simple thing that says, "Look, now I don't have to bother with what it's doing." 7:27 That's even better because I think that's why people don't like the concept of an app per se. In their mind, they have that. 7:33 You're making it even easier for them and saying, "Look, w- you don't have to hassle with any of it. It's gonna do it automatically." So you, you're, you're truly hands-free. 7:42 You're focused on the road, and your, your mind, your head's free. 7:46 Your mind is focused on that driving, and your hand is on that wheel where it should be, not holding something and, you know, doing something that isn't what you're supposed to be then. Absolutely. 7:59 Um, and you triggered another thought around the counterintuitive side. When people get on airplanes and they can't connect, you know, you, you can't. You know, you're in airplane mode. It... People don't get stressed. 8:10 They relax. "Well, I can't connect anyway, so I can read that book." The way this works is we're basically just putting the phone into airplane mode. 8:19 If you try to go to web browser, YouTube video, it just says, "No internet connection." 8:25 And this counterintuitive surprising thing is people relax into it and go, "Well, since I can't, I don't have to be stressed about it. It's like I've got my phone turned off." 8:36 So people that are using Groove are, are coming back and saying, "This is weird, but I, like, enjoy driving again because I'm not stressed." All of that to your point. It just kind of goes away. Nice. 8:49 Well, I have to tell you, Scott Tibbitts, CEO and founder of Katasi, what's your URL so our listeners can get up there and get hooked up with you? I like it. 8:59 Well, you're gonna be hearing more about this in the next six months. Uh, it, it, it happens in partnerships with telcos. So y- you heard me mention a telco here. Uh, that might be an example. We're also in Australia. 9:11 So the, you know, the, the important thing here is that, uh, people realize when it starts showing up in, in one US telco, 9:21 it doesn't take many people to start switching to that telco to have the others say, "We gotta have this too." So our intention is that this is ubiquitous. And we gotta go. Scott, we gotta go. We're out of time. 9:29 Hey, listeners. We are out of time. Remember, we are broadcast live every Tuesday at twelve PM Central. [upbeat music] Check out our website at peggysmedley show dot com. Tweet at me at connect2wmag. 9:40 Remember, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. Have a great week. 9:54 [upbeat music] Constructek TV, your fierce advocates for construction. Constructek TV digs into infrastructure, drills into global economic conditions. 10:09 It is changing the talent gap narrative, adopting a new vision and a voice to the new skilled worker in construction, all with the help of technology. 10:19 Constructek TV, everything you need for infrastructure, labor, and technology. 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