How WARN works
WARN is a crowdsourced early-warning network for wildlife on rural roads. A driver reports what they saw in one tap; every WARN driver approaching that spot gets warned within seconds.
Reports expire
A deer does not stay put. Every report carries a countdown sized to the animal — twenty minutes for a live deer, twelve hours for a carcass on the shoulder. When the countdown ends the report disappears on its own. Nobody has to close it.
Drivers confirm it
Anyone who passes the spot can tap "still there" to push the countdown forward, or "all clear" to wind it down. Corroboration from independent drivers is what makes a report trustworthy — not who sent it first.
Alerts find you
There is no dispatcher and no queue. A new report broadcasts to every device within its own chosen radius, ranked by severity, and stops there.
Patterns become corridors
Reports die, but the record of them does not. Repeat sightings at one location cluster into a crossing corridor with a peak hour and a peak month — the kind of evidence that justifies signage, fencing or a culvert.
Built for people who are driving
Driver distraction was a design constraint from the first sketch, not a disclaimer bolted on afterwards:
- Reporting is one tap. No forms, no menus, no confirmation dialog.
- Alerts are audio-first, with vibration patterns that escalate by severity — you can tell a moose from a raccoon without looking.
- Report buttons are oversized and thumb-reachable.
- Everything works with the screen off and the phone in a pocket.
- WARN still asks you to pull over. A report that arrives thirty seconds later is worth more than a collision.
Common questions
Does WARN track where I drive?
No. WARN stores one coarse recent position per device so it knows who to warn, and it is overwritten each time. There are no accounts, no names, and no trip history.
What if someone files a fake report?
A single unconfirmed report carries low confidence and a short countdown. Two independent "all clear" responses retire it early. Corridor analysis counts distinct devices, not raw reports, so one person cannot manufacture a hotspot.
Why did an alert not reach me?
Check your alert radius and minimum severity in settings, and whether you are inside quiet hours. On iPhone, notifications only work if WARN is added to your home screen.
Who is this for?
Drivers first. But the corridor data is built to be handed to municipalities and the Ministry of Transportation, who decide where signage and wildlife crossings go.