App to send alert when vehicle gets towed, coming soon

Many of us have parked our two-wheelers and cars on the road and have had them towed away by cops.Now, an MTech student from the city has designed an app that can give you a notification when this happens. Raghav S, who is from the PG Dept of Computer Science Engineering department of PES University has developed the soon to be launched app for the purpose. The framework for the app has been developed on the Google Navigation application “I have developed an admin app for the RTO or traffic cops and a client app for vehicle owners. The client app has three features one of which is the notification function,” says Raghav. As soon as the concerned authorities take down the number of a vehicle to tow, on the app, an automatic alert is triggered on a client app through a message. The feature has been achieved by collecting the users data such as vehicle number, phone number and other relevant information at the time of installation of the application, adds Raghav. “According to the rules the RTO has to issue an alert in loud speakers before confiscating vehicles. However many a times this does not happen or we do not hear such instructions. My own two wheeler has been towed a few times but I had no clue about it. So this is a feature in the app that will prevent such instances,” he adds. While the app is in the beta version, the finished product will be out within two months, says Jayashree Rangareddy, Professor at the Computer Science Engineering department, and a guide in the project. When asked about getting the RTO and traffic department on board for the project, Dr Jayashree adds, “That bit we have left it to the decison of University. We will also take it forward for the benefit of the public soon enough.” Other applications Another feature integrated in the app is a”live traffic junction” alert for users whereby instructions given out by traffic cops in crowded junctions automatically comes through the app. The alert is based on the distance and location of information of the user approaching the junction. Currently the messages are broadcasted up to a distance of 100 meters radius from the junction, says Raghav. “There is no need to roll down the window and struggle to listen to the loudspeaker or public system, while looking at a congested junction,” he adds.Another feature is to help cab drivers of cab aggregators such as Uber and Ola to get navigation instructions in Kannada rather than in English. They can choose one among the four dialects of Kannada which is supported by the application such as Dharwad Kannada, Mandya Kannada, Coastal Kannada and the Standard Kannada, says Raghav.