Howard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Google app to warn drivers about railroad
> crossings
>
> FacebookTwitter
>
> MARK J. TERRILL / ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> Police officers stand near a Metrolink train that
> hit a truck in February in Oxnard. 
>
> BY WHIP VILLARREAL
>
> June 29, 2015, 2:46 p.m.
>
> Google has agreed to add audio and visual alerts
> in its navigation app to warn drivers about
> railroad crossings.
>
> Google is partnering with the Federal Railroad
> Administration after deaths at railroad crossings
> jumped last year. The number of deaths had been
> steadily declining over the past decade until
> spiking 9% in 2014, according to the agency, which
> oversees the nation’s railroads.
>
> California accounted for 33 of the 270 deaths from
> train-on-vehicle collisions in 2014.The railroad
> agency is also in talks with other tech companies,
> including Apple, TomTom and MapQuest, to integrate
> warnings into navigation apps.
>
> “Google was the first to say that they would go
> ahead and integrate the data. But we have had
> great conversations with other companies,” said
> Sarah Feinberg, acting administrator of the
> Federal Railroad Administration. “No one has told
> us that they are uninterested.”
>
> Google said it doesn’t have a timeline for when
> the integration of audio and visual alerts for
> railroad crossings will be completed. Meanwhile,
> the company has agreed to update its maps with
> 250,000 public and private crossing locations.

Well, cool.... maybe someday Google will find a way to put their fones in the hands of low level income citizens.
Until then, guess I will still rely on my eyeballs.