From accident to vision
An accident narrowly avoided
One late night in the spring of 2007, entrepreneur Troels Palshof was on his way home to Aarhus from an evening meeting in Copenhagen. On the motorway just outside Odense, he fell asleep behind the wheel and just narrowly avoided a crash. Frightened by his experience, he began next day to consider how he could avoid ending up in that kind of situation again.
Days turned into weeks. The more he read, the clearer it became - tiredness when driving is a major international problem, described extensively in numerous scientific reports, articles and surveys. It was also obvious that there was no readily available solution which could really help people to avoid driving when tired.
His own personal experience and insight into the issue resulted in a vision for developing a product which could reduce the risk of accidents caused by driving when tired and hence which could improve road traffic safety for all. The Anti Sleep Pilot has taken more than three years to develop, with contributions from more than 125 people from a number of countries and specialist fields.
Major objectives from the outset
Development of the Anti Sleep Pilot has been driven by four primary objectives.
- Based on science: Leading sleep researchers have been associated with the project from the outset. The solution has had to be based, without fail, on state-of-the-art science in the fields of sleep and road traffic
- Available to all: To have the greatest possible impact, the product needed to be widely available at a reasonable price and be usable irrespective of the make and model of car driven
- User friendly: Stringent demands were made of simple installation and user friendly interaction so as to ensure that everyone can understand and use the product
- Discreet, high quality design The design had to be so aesthetically pleasing that users would want to install the product in their cars
