July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Americans spend 45 billion hours a year in the car, which is more than four times as much time as they spend on Facebook.

Joyride seeks to make this time more fun with voice-activated mobile applications that provide a safe and social way to spend the driving hours. The startup is launching publicly today after presenting off-the-record at the Founder Den Demo Day last week and announcing $1 million in funding.

Founders Jeff Chen and James Zhang previously developed Skyvi, a voice-activated media app which is like Siri for Android. They applied this expertise to creating the VoiceUI Architecture platform that forms Joyride’s foundation.

“We are not talking about a simple ‘navigate’ or text command,” said Chen during an interview at VentureBeat. “We are talking about a full-blown rich mobile application that is 100 percent hands-free and brings all the social fun pieces of the Internet to you while you are driving.”

The first application built on this voice platform is a trivia game. Your phone asks you questions about historical figures, landmarks, or events (and more) and provides clues. When you have a guess, you say it out loud, and you score points for being right. The game is what Chen describes as “fake synchronous.” You are neither playing against other people in real time or against a machine. Instead, you are matched against other players whose activity was already saved in the system. It gives the illusion of social connectivity — without the behind-the-wheel dangers.

“Internet penetration of the car is a big macro trend, and Internet usage in the car is inevitable,” Chen said. “Voice tech is finally getting really good, and with cloud services and connected devices, we are really seeing voice recognition where it can be great.

“The third factor here is social. People are super-bored while they are driving, and we think people want a social experience that is a safer alternative to mobile apps.”

The technology’s design has three criteria, according to CTO James Zhang. The first is a “reusable voice user interface” (VUI) that maintains data about certain commands. The second is how it handles arbitrary user input, or knowing what interactions apply to the app and which don’t. Third is the “equal coexistence” of voice and gesture user interface, all connected to the driver through the smartphone’s connectivity and an AUX jack or Bluetooth.

Down the road, Joyride plans to build a diverse library of applications on top of this platform that provide engaging in-car experiences.

“The most important thing is that people are suffering in their cars,” Chen said. “They are these tiny little boxes with tiny little windows and we are going to turn cars into starships and make it fun and interesting and even safer. This is just the beginning. It is a cool, untapped area that has a lot of potential.”

Investors see potential here, too. Freestyle Capital and the Cowboy Venture Fund, as well as angel investor Seth Goldstein, provided seed financing to to build out the engineering team and accelerate entrance into the market.

Photo Credit: Joyride

Splitsecnd is a crash detection and emergency response system. It works through a small piece of hardware that plugs into a car’s cigarette lighter. In the event of a collision, Splitsecnd automatically calls for help.

“The idea is to make it really easy to get the help you need in the event of an accident and reduce the amount of time it takes for emergency to get there,” said CEO and founder Chris Thompson in an interview with VentureBeat. “People want to make sure their grandparents, kids, and spouses have something that connects them immediately to help. An phone app is not a good solution. Built-in solutions are only available in luxury cars, and our closest competitor is OnStar, which requires professional installation. All you have to do with Splitsecnd is plug it in.”

If a serious accident occurs, a driver (or their passengers) may not be able to call for help themselves. Splitsecnd uploads the car’s location to a cellular data network and notifies a response center. Someone at the response center will assess the situation and deploy a local 911 team if necessary. The device also has a backup battery charger so it can function even if it’s expelled from the car. The team spent time doing crash tests at the University of Michigan, simulating the worst case scenario to see how Splitsecnd help up. Thompson said that the collisions made a lot of noise, but they could still hear the device making the call.

On-road safety is not only about collisions, however. During early market research for the product, Thompson discovered that most people wanted to buy Splitsecnd for someone else.

“We found that people want to buy this for people they care about,” Thompson said. “Husbands want to buy it for their wives, and wives want to buy it for their husbands. My grandparents are pretty good drivers, but they don’t really use cell phones. My grandfather had three heart attacks. If he had heart attack in the car, he can push the ‘help’ button and be connected. Splitscnd is able to take over when you may not be able to.”

The Family Finder feature monitors the safety of your loved ones in real time. This is useful for senior citizens, who may be prone to getting lost, but particularly for the parents of teenagers who want to know where their kids are.

Thompson said that shaving just a minute off response time could reduce morbidity and mortality of auto accidents by 6 percent. Furthermore, there is a wealth of possibilities in the realm of connected cars. The “Internet of Things,” and particularly of cars, are hot topics right now in the tech world. Startups and international corporations alike are taking interest in this area. Earlier this year, Cisco and NXP announced a strategic investment in Cohda Wireless, which builds hardware to make cars smarter. Intel Capital formed the Connected Car Fund a year ago, dedicating $100 million toward technology that connects cars to the web.

Splitsecnd, however, is not geared toward people who interested in hi-tech. The startup’s mission is to make heightened automobile safety accessible to people without smartphones or GPS systems, who aren’t driving luxury cars, and who may not be the most tech savvy. Thompson said the company will start with online sales only, but the plan is to grow into more traditional retail outlets, big box stores, and car dealerships. The device costs $199, with a $14.99 a month fee.

To fuel this growth, Nashville-based Splitsecnd raised $2.1 million from Tennessee Community Ventures, the INCITE co-investment fund, the Jumpstart Foundry, and a private investor.

For now, Splitsecnd is focuses on emergency response. However, the realm of machine-to-machine communication is wide and there are plenty of applications down-the-road.

Photo Credit: JasonParis/Flickr