While well-known mapping apps have transformed the daily commute through better information, Stanford electrical engineer Balaji Prabhakar (https://profiles.stanford.edu/balaji-prabhakar) is exploring ways to digitally incentivize people to improve their driving habits.

He calls it “nudging,” and says that small shifts in commute times — just 20 minutes earlier or later — can make a considerable impact on the day’s congestion in highly trafficked urban areas, like San Francisco.

A few years ago, Prabhakar made headlines with a Stanford-only study that used small monetary incentives backed by larger lottery-like rewards to reduce peak-hour commuting on campus. He later undertook a similar but much larger effort in Singapore to promote off-peak train travel. In four years, participation in Singapore grew from 20,000 to 400,000 users.

Join host Russ Altman (https://profiles.stanford.edu/russ-altman?tab=bio) and guest Balaji Prabhakar for a look at the very latest ways science is improving the daily grind for millions of commuters across the world.

Related | Russ Altman (https://profiles.stanford.edu/russ-altman), the Kenneth Fong professor and professor of bioengineering, of genetics, of medicine (general medical discipline), of biomedical data science and, by courtesy, of computer science. 

Related | Balaji Prabhakar (https://profiles.stanford.edu/russ-altman), the VMware Founders Professor in Computer Science and professor of electrical engineering.