Remember that brain-training flash game that Allstate Insurance was looking into as a way to offer insurance discounts to drivers? Now the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety is behind it, too.
Working with developer Posit Science, AAA is offering a new brain training game program called DriveSharp, which is pretty much the same thing as InSight — the package of brain games that includes Jewel Diver. DriveSharp still has Jewel Diver, but it's also got another game called Road Tour that tests and allegedly improves your peripheral vision. If you're a AAA member, you can get a discount on the $139 price tag.
Posit Science claims that its programs have been proven to reduce the risk of car crashes by 50%. The skills that their games like Jewel Diver cultivate — focus, reaction time, memory, visual processing speed and multi-object tracking — can help drivers young and old avoid traffic accidents and improve stopping distance by up to 22 feet at 55 miles per hour, according to AAA's press release.
Jewel Diver may still not be that much to look at and I'm not really thrilled about dropping $139 on a piece of software that won't immediately lower my monthly car insurance rate. But Posit's deal with AAA is one step closer to the day when I can justify buying video games as an investment. I count that as a win.
You can find AAA's press release here and a demo of Jewel Diver here.