By Pete Barlas
Investor’s Business Daily
When Joe Scott got his mail in late 2008, he found an unwelcome surprise: a warning notice about a recent speeding violation.
Scott had unknowingly sped past a speed trap camera in Washington, D.C.
“I thought, this is really scary,” he said. “In the D.C. area they have lots of red light cameras and speed cameras, and trying to keep track of them all was just hideous.”
So Scott developed Phantom-Alert, a mobile app that tracks and warns drivers about the whereabouts of red light and speed cameras, school zones, potholes and other traffic maladies.
The app has won Scott praise from drivers, financial backing from a venture fund -- and condemnation from four U.S. senators who accuse the service of jeopardizing driver safety.
PhantomAlert has identified more than 400,000 enforcement and safety locations in the U.S. and Canada. But it was the inclusion of law enforcement DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoints that rankled Democratic Sens. Harry Reid (Nev.), Charles Schumer (N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) and Mark Udall (Col.), says Scott.
“They started accusing us of allowing people to drink and drive and evade detection,” he said.
The senators asked Google, Apple and Research In Motion to drop PhantomAlert from their app stores. RIM complied. Google said no. Apple was on the fence but, says Scott, last week also said no to the request.
Scott says the senators are wrong.
“It’s actually trying to raise awareness by posting the DUI checkpoints,” he said. “We’re a safety tool.”
A spokesman for RIM was checking into the company’s decision late last week but didn’t have an update as of Monday. Apple didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Sen. Reid’s office didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
A spokesman for Google, via e-mail, said “we remove apps that violate our Android content policies . . . they do not appear to violate those policies.”
PhantomAlert has more than 1 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. Most buy the service at the lifetime rate of $100 or at a five-year rate of $49.99. It also offers one-year and one-month rates, for use on multiple devices.
PhantomAlert works by issuing an audio warning and an image on the customer’s mobile device. The alerts tell the driver to slow down and be more attentive, Scott says.
Subscribers keep the service fresh by providing updates. Each update is checked with other subscribers in the area before it’s added to the website’s database.
Scott offers prizes to subscribers who provide the most updates.
“It’s like a community of drivers helping other drivers,” he said.
A self-described real estate entrepreneur, Scott hired a software engineer to create a program to plot all the speed and red light cameras between D.C. and his hometown in Pennsylvania. Scott used Google Maps to pinpoint the locations. He then downloaded all of the information into the Garmin in his car and went for a drive.
“I got warned about all of these speed traps that drivers might have forgotten about,” he said.
Scott got his first funding, $100,000, from Stage 1 Ventures of Waltham, Mass., which has agreed to provide an additional $1.25 million. (Stage 1 is not affiliated with an Israel’s StageOne Ventures.)
PhantomAlert’s biggest rival is Trapster, which offers a free downloadable service. Nokia unit Navteq, a maker of digital maps and location-based services, bought Trapster in December for an undisclosed amount. Trapster says it has more than 11.1 million users worldwide.
But PhantomAlert’s paid service will succeed, says Jon Gordon, managing partner for Stage 1.
“Joe has monetization and the strength of the database,” Gordon said. “They have some technology involved that allows them to ensure they’re going to (have) more accurate data points,” he said. “And the market is very big.”
Scott says he’ll use Stage 1’s funding to expand his two-employee company.
“Developing apps, building a website and doing the marketing gets expensive,” he said.
Copyright 2011 Investor’s Business Daily, Inc.