Statistics show that most traffic accidents involving children happen around the home. So, location data is a key factor their prevention, one that is openly available through services like Google Maps.

Doodle Mats, created by Renault, are the first play rugs for kids that feature real-life streets and pedestrian crossings from around their homes, mapped from Google Maps and Google Street View. Together with parents, children play and learn traffic safety, on replicas of roads they walk every day.

On our website, parents input their home address. A custom-made algorithm uses Google APIs to accurately convert geolocation data from Google Maps and Street View into colorful illustrations.

This new approach to using location data allowed us to recreate the surroundings of the kids’ homes (buildings, streets, crosswalks, etc.) on play rugs, that were then home-delivered.

The innovative products leverage mapping technology to create fun educational tools that keep kids safe.

Doodle Mats takes already existing mapping data and repurposes it in a completely new way.

Once parents input their home address in our website, the system collects all geolocation data from their selected area and converts them into colorful visualizations for kids. Every piece of data has a corresponding illustration – from streets, crosswalks, buildings, parks and landmarks. The result is an accurate recreation of their neighborhood, that’s printed on the play-rug. Kids learn traffic rules by playing on the Doodle Mats and, as a result, stay safe on the streets.

To implement this idea, we first developed an automatic method of converting Google Maps data into illustration. The website takes Google APIs and matches geo-data with the appropriate illustration, placing buildings and streets in their appropriate location.

Over 200 of illustrations were created by local artists, in three different styles. Each corresponded to a specific building, road, park or landmark type. This way, the resulting Doodle Mats recreated surroundings that any kid could recognize.

This illustrated map was then printed on a play-rug, that was home delivered. This way, children, by playing together with parents, learned the safe way to walk on city streets, preventing accidents from happening.

As word spread about the Doodle Mats, parents went to our website and mapped a total of 378 km2 of city area, to apply for their customized play rugs. The orders exceeded expectations for the launch promo by over 300%.

Press and influencers picked up the idea and promoted it on their pages, praising the brand for getting involved in pedestrian safety in a surprising and innovative way.

Thanks to the success of the launch promo, Renault plans to offer Doodle Mats as a permanent product, to support their road safety efforts.

This way, the brand helped in educating kids about traffic safety, so they will become a more responsible generation of pedestrians and drivers.

Car-maker Renault introduced Doodle Mats, the play-rugs for kids that feature real-life streets and pedestrian crossings, from around their home. We repurposed location data from Google Maps and Street View, creating an actual product that helps teach road safety in a completely new way.

An algorithm was developed to convert geo-data into illustrations that correspond to their real-life counterparts: streets, buildings, landmarks etc. Parents just had to input their address on our dedicated website and a personalized carpet was generated, printed and delivered. Kids played on a customized visualization of their neighborhood and, together with parents, learned road safety rules.

On the Doodle Mats website, precise geolocation data was gathered from Google Maps. Thanks to a custom-made algorithm that connected Google APIs to a dedicated website, mapping data was converted into colorful illustrations that recreated the kids’ neighborhood. This way, they could play on the very streets they walked on, learning, for example, where all the pedestrian crossings were.

The programming of the algorithm was essential, as it allowed us to use real-life geographic locations, structure type, road configuration and information (like pedestrian crossings). All data was converted into corresponding illustrations, out of one of the three sets that the user had chosen. Everything came together in layout of the Doodle Mats, that was both geo-accurate and a kid-friendly visualization. Every product was unique, personalized to the location inputted by the parent.

Our target audience were families with children, living in urban areas of Romania (where most accidents involving pedestrians happen). To drive traffic to our “Doodle Mats” website, we used a digital campaign that targeted parents on social media (Facebook especially), online (parenting sites, toy e-stores, etc.) and by recruiting relevant influencers to spread the word about the idea.

Romania has the highest rate of pedestrian casualties in the European Union, accounting for a third of the total number of road fatalities in the country. Most of them (69%) take place in urban areas.

For car maker Renault, safety is a top priority – not just for drivers and passengers, but for pedestrians as well. Renault cars regularly score 5 stars in Euro NCAP tests, with 8 models in the current range getting best-in-class ratings. The company decided to help reduce the number of accidents for the most vulnerable category of pedestrians: children.

According to a report from the European Commission’s Department of Mobility and Transport, most accidents involving kids happen around their home. Many children cross the street on unmarked areas, outside pedestrian crossings or signs, putting themselves at great risk. Attempts at road safety education have done little to resolve this issue.