PrepMyRide

Inspiration

The growing rate of road accident in Malaysia as well as the necessity for preventative measures to be takes, motivated us to develop and come up with the concept of PrepMyRide. An automobile maintenance and on road distraction fee mobile application. We intend to provide a solution to overcome road accidents as much as possible by ensuring cars which are well maintained and in good condition and the driver can go on a distraction free journey.

According to statista(2020), the number of road accident in Malaysia between the year 2012 and 2020 has been on the rise. A record of 567 000 of road accident was recorded in the year 2019 and its one of the most compared with other developing countries. Kurnia (2022), one of the largerst motor insurers added by stating that reckless(speeding), dangerous or aggressive and poor vehicle maintenance as 2 of the 10 main causes of road accidents in Malaysia. Apart all these, one of our team members close relative was involved in a car accident due to brake faultiness which motivated us to really pursue this problem and create a solution towards it.

What it does

PrepMyRide is an automobile maintenance mobile application that allows users to schedule, track vehicle maintenance duties, and helps users to stay away from their phone and focus on the road while driving.

It provides awareness to the user for routine maintenance activities such as oil changes, tire conditions, and engine assessments. The maintenance checklist is divided into few sections like engine, fluid levels, lights, windshield & wipers and tires. Instructions will be given and the users have to follow as it says and tick the boxes. This is where our implementation of Machine Learning algorithm comes in. Decision Tree algorithm will then calculate the condition of the car based on the ticked boxes and its weight. The user will be notified based on the condition of the car. The app also enables users to keep a digital record of their vehicle's service history.

Furthermore, the app provides a DriverMode feature that blocks most of the applications on the users' mobile devices while the feature is on. This feature enables users to fully focus on the road by preventing mobile device usage while driving. Music player applications (spotify, apple music, etc) and navigation applications (waze, google maps) are exception as some would like to listen to music or some would need some help with navigation.

When DriverMode is on, the movement of the car is automatically detected by using proprietary algorithm and any speed beyond 20 km/h will trigger and lock all the other apps not allowing the user to access them. The 20 km/h threshold is set as the average human is able to run at around 10 to 15 km/h and by this it does not to disturb them while they are on for a jog or run. Lastly, RideCoins are rewarded to the users.

There are 2 ways a user can collect RideCoins :

1st way : 1 RideCoin is awarded every day and users can claim it.

2nd way : awarded when users are on the road driving and maintain by abiding the legal speed limit. For each Kilometre travelled by abiding the speed limit, a single RideCoin will be rewarded.

The though process behind this RideCoins reward is for user engagement purpose and motivating the user to drive within speed limit and earn something.

The collected RideCoins can be used for several purpose such as vehicle service charges at the nearest workshops for now.

How we built it

First, we jotted down the features that needed to be added in PrepMyRide. Then, we each sketched a GUI prototype and decided on which one has the best user-friendliness and give the best user-experience. There were a few mixes and matches from all our prototype. With the finalised sketched prototype, we proceeded to FIGMA and created a digitalised GUI. Upon getting approval from all our team members, we directly went on to develop the mobile app using React Native in Visual Studio Code IDE. We chose React Native because it could support cross platform publication for our mobile application.

Challenges we ran into

There were few challenges we faced, and they are :

Finalising a problem within our community : We each member identified a problem to be solved and even came up with a solution. Since all the problem were vital, we debated and discussed on the best pick to be focused in this hackathon.
Time deficiency : We had to rush to come up with idea, the concept, develop the interface prototype, and develop the mobile application since we were given around a day and not more than that. Also this is our 1st time attending a hackathon which requires us to come up with a partial working system in a day.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite these difficulties, we are delighted with our finished product. PrepMyRide is an efficient and user-friendly app that has the potential to greatly impact road safety in Malaysia in a good way. We designed an intuitive user interface and provided the best user experience taking note of all possibilities and user type. Our success lies on producing a helpful tool that has the ability to save lives and avoid traffic accidents.

What we learned

Throughout the development of PrepMyRide, we gained valuable insights and information about road accidents, road safety concerns and the possible role that technology might play in preventing them worldwide and especially in Malaysia. We deepened our understanding of API integration, data processing, and machine learning methods that could potentially be implemented in PrepMyRide. We also learnt the significance of user-centred design and usability testing in creating an intuitive and engaging user experience.

What's next for PrepMyRide

In the future, we intend to enhance PrepMyRide's usefulness by introducing new features. Firstly, integrating with vehicle diagnostic systems to give real-time vehicle health monitoring and predictive maintenance alerts is part of this. We also intend to work with insurance firms and regulatory agencies to deliver personalised insurance offers and to promote safe driving behaviours. Additionally, we aim to gather anonymised data from consumers in order to learn more about their driving habits and spot high-risk areas, which will help us improve Malaysia's road safety regulations overall. To top it all we really look forward to collaborate with Oil&Gas companies like Shell or Petronas so that our users can use the RideCoins to redeem for fuel. It wouldn’t be fair if this technology was kept within Malaysia but to expand few neighbouring countries like Singapore, Thailand, Phillipines and more from the South-East Asian region in the next 3 to 5 years.