From Tom Vanderbilt’s book Traffic, I learned about DriveCam, a company that improves the way people drive. They make a device that when placed in a car records the exterior view and the driver. If it senses sudden braking, cornering, acceleration, or a collision, then the ten seconds before and after are uploaded and analyzed. Drivers are then coached appropriately.

They do great work with commercial fleets, where they’ve reduced crash rates by 30-50%. They’re now starting to use this technology for student drivers. As part of a trial in Iowa, they put DriveCams in the cars of high school students. Believe it or not, in Iowa you can start driving at age 14, so this is a very good thing.

But these students are clever, and they have figured out a way to game the system. Vanderbilt quotes one of the participants, who says, “I figured out how to beat the system. I just look way ahead and anticipate traffic and slow down for corners and I haven’t set it off in a month.”