Cell phone use has proven to be a major cause of the distracted driving epidemic. Parents, legislators, non-profit organizations and law enforcement have all stepped up to fight the war against distracted driving. And now, a rather unexpected advocate has joined the fight: Samusng.

The tech brand has invested in a mobile phone app designed to reward drivers for safe driving. The app has been dubbed Samsung S:Drive.

The Samsung S:Drive app is currently available to drivers in Australia. It cuts out the phone’s signal so that drivers can’t be distracted by calls and texts. It also uses the phone’s GPS to track speed and distance traveled. The more distance that is covered with safe driving, the more rewards the driver earns.

The app also has a social aspect, allowing groups of friends to team up to create Drive Teams that can accumulate points for better rewards.

Arno Lenior, Samsung marketing director, told AdNews, “By using rewards and gamification it’s a positive way of approaching the problem. We think it’s going to be particularly successful and drive positive behavior change by rewarding them for doing the right thing.”

Studies have shown that positive reinforcement can be more effective than negative reinforcement. In this case, we’ll have to see if the rewards are good enough to impact driver safety more than typical punishments such as traffic tickets and scare tactics.