This app suggests an interesting future in which everyone who has an interest in safer roads pays drivers to stay off the phone. What if OnMyWay makes a deal with NYC to pay an additional penny per mile for drivers behaving well in the City’s limits, and then gets GEICO to credit their insurance bill a penny a mile, and then hits up Medicare and/or private health insurers for a discount. Or maybe these entities install their own apps and cut out OnMyWay (which is why they won’t have to do that). Once the fact of a driver’s quiet phone is known, lots of people will pay someone for that data.

If the prize gets big enough, the fraudsters will go to work. For the cost of a burner phone to use on the road, you can keep your “public” phone off and go to town (literally) on the burner.

And what about the GPS? Many drivers use their phones as GPS systems. It’s way cheaper than paying for a built-in Nav system. Maybe OnMyWay could be a GPS app, too. Maybe it could provide other passive aids to safe driving. Or not.

If behavior can be broadcast, it can be monetized. Would you be creeped out if the maitre’d at a new restaurant knew your name when you walked in the door? When the hotel is ready for you because you have entered its address in the GPS? That would give the name “OnMyWay” a literal dimension. Still, maybe this app should be renamed “CamelsNose.” There is likely way more to follow…