Cheil Worldwide Creates 'Beat the Street' VR Game to Improve Childrens' Road Safety

In the Netherlands, thousands of young children cycle to school and back every day. Every year, a large number of those children are involved in road accidents, some of them fatal. This is mainly due to the children’s lack of experience with road traffic. To address this problem, in collaboration with Veilig Verkeer Nederland (the Dutch Traffic Safety Association) Cheil Worldwide Netherlands and Samsung have developed the free virtual reality game ‘Beat The Street’.

In this VR game, young people experience a wide range of dangerous traffic situations that are very true to life. They have to make choices and take action – for example, look carefully,cross the street or indeed wait until it is safe. The motion sensors in the Gear VR give the children live feedback so that they are confronted, in a playful way, with the consequences of their actions.

Creating a real memory
The app is a fun experience, partly because the collisions are depicted in a cartoon-esque way. At the same time, the lessons to be learned really hit home.Because the children feel they are genuinely experiencing the event, they create a real memory that they can learn from.

Mariska Kloezen, Business Director at Cheil, said: “We’re using new technologies, but then in a very relevant way. In this case, you can even contribute something important to society and improve road safety for children. And that’s something every parent will applaud.”

The ‘Beat The Street’ app can soon be downloaded free from the Oculus Store; it runs on the Samsung Gear VR or other VR solutions. Educational institutions can apply for a ‘Beat The Street’ virtual reality set.