FOCUS Online warns its users about ghost drivers before it’s too late

Every traffic fatality is one too many. That's why we want to use appropriate technology to save lives. With the help of a cloud-based system, FOCUS Online now warns app users about ghost users on Germany’s streets. 

Fewer traffic fatalities in Germany

Each year around 2,000 people drive in the wrong direction on German motorways. It often takes a few minutes before an urgent traffic announcement is made. Bosch and FOCUS Online have teamed up to make up life-saving time in such a situation.

From this day on, FOCUS Online – Germany’s most-read online news publication – is equipped with the wrong-way driver warning tool developed by Bosch, the technology and service company. In just a few seconds, the tool warns the ghost driver and potentially affected drivers in the area. With FOCUS Online’s new app update, the tool will be automatically installed on more than a million smartphones in Germany.

"No more road fatalities caused by ghost drivers – that is Bosch’s goal”, says Dr. Markus Heyn, managing director of Robert Bosch GmBH. With its life-saving tool from the data cloud, the company now warns against ghost drivers in 15 European countries.

In order to detect ghost drivers, the cloud-based tool compares the actual movement of the vehicle with the permitted direction of travel at that location, which is stored in a database. For the tool to work, it is sufficient for the driver to have the FOCUS Online app open in the background. In the event of impermissible deviations, the driver is notified of his error by a push notification on his smartphone. At the same time, oncoming cars in the vicinity receive a warning.

Johanna Schallehn

BurdaForward Communications

For more than eight years I have been writing texts about our company and our brands, organising trade fairs, talking to journalists and being chronically in far too many meetings. Whether at home or in the office - it doesn't get boring and sometimes I just put out the fire. If not, then I am most likely to be met in the mountains, with my daughter on the Isar or in my home country and the most beautiful city in the world: Hamburg.