How's their driving? Tattle on Fail Driver
Web site and companion iPhone app affords weary commuters a public forum for outing egregious driving behavior complete with license plate and documenting photos.
You might not be able to conduct a citizen's arrest the next time you spot someone texting at the wheel, littering, or taking up three parking spaces at the mall, but at least you can now publicly shame them online.
That's right, there's an app for outing bad drivers.
Fail Driver is a Web site and companion iPhone app that affords weary commuters a public forum to post accounts of egregious driving behaviors complete with license plate and documenting photos.
Consider it a digital (and more constructive) version of giving an offending driver the finger. Inspired by a frustrating hour-long commute in the Tampa, Fla., suburbs, software developer Mike Shaw created the Web site and app as a way to provide a peer review of drivers.
When users spots bad behavior, they can whip out their iPhone, start the app, key in a license plate, take photos, and tag the offense. The app captures the GPS location of the user and displays the post on Faildriver.com, offering up the offending driver to the court of public opinion for judgment.
It's not much, but it's better than nothing.
If you don't have an iPhone, don't worry--haters can submit information on the Web site too. And just in case you think you're above reproach, the app lets you see just how bad your own driving is as well. Just search within it for license plates or descriptions.
If you don't find anything, you can set alerts for up to four license plates and you'll be notified if someone tags your (or your teen's) car on the site. If something turns up in the alert, you won't be able to respond, but you can e-mail support on the Web site if you find something offensive or incorrect.
There's also a feature to combat submitters' remorse--if they regret posting an incident on the site, they have 24 hours to remove it themselves. The app is free, although Shaw takes donations online to help offset the cost of hosting the site. And just so we're claer, Shaw also cautions that if you use his app while driving you probably deserve to be tagged as a faildriver as well.