Skip the phone, earn free coffee

Technology 1 min
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Toyota's Driving Barista app pays phone-free driving with free coffee coupons in Japan's Aichi prefecture.

Could you drive for kilometers without looking at your phone for a free coffee? If your answer is yes, Toyota’s new campaign is for you.

Toyota added another road-safety campaign to the list. Working with coffee chain Komeda’s Coffee and telecom KDDI Corporation, it launched a free mobile app called Driving Barista. The stated goal is to bring traffic accidents and related deaths in Japan down to zero.

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Using the phone’s gyro sensor and GPS, the app can tell whether the driver is using the phone and how far they have gone. After the first 100 km phone-free, you earn the first free coffee coupon, then another every 200 km. Pick up the phone and the distance counter resets, wiping coupons you already earned.

iOS and Android builds exist, but for now the app is live only in Aichi Prefecture, the Japanese region with the most car accidents over the last 13 years.

Oğuzhan Koçaklı

Oğuzhan Koçaklı writes and advises on AI engineering, agents, GenAI products, and applied ML. Daily digests and deep dives in EN + TR at oguzhan.co.

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