People are so insistent on driving while using their cell phones that only death in a car accident will stop them from doing so. Spurred by the prevalence of fatal accidents caused by distracted drivers — 5,500 last year — the government is mulling over the concept of using technology to force drivers to put down their phones.
MSNBC reports the U.S. Department of Transportation is evaluating devices that will disable cell phones if they’re moving at a specific speed. Finally, Sandra Bullock’s people have a solid idea for Speed 3.
MSNBC speaks to an expert who speculates that “driven” drivers will find ways to work around such technology, so no matter what’s implemented, it will be up to drivers to make the right decision.
Do you think it’s worth giving up the ability to drive-and-dial in return for increased safety?
Gov’t evaluating cell phone blocking tech in cars [MSNBC]
(Thanks, Chris!)
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When is this nanny state madness going to stop? Besides, mandating breathalyzer ignition lock-outs would save far more lives. And, no, I’m not suggesting we should do that either. I’m so sick and tired of everyone who thinks safety should trump everything else. Living in a free society comes with some risk.
YES! What you said!
It is getting more and more common for your phone to be able to sync with your car (for speaker phone, playing music etc.) so it would be cool to have an app that recognizes that you’re driving and stores your texts for later, but this would have to be something that you opt into, to break what you know is a bad habit. I don’t see how this type of technology could be mandated anywhere in the near future.
Because no one ever died in a car accident before cell phones were invented; no one was ever distracted by a child or a bee flying in or anything ever before and banning cell phones will make sure that no one ever dies in a car accident again, right, DoT?
This won’t increase safety but will only increase the federal government’s heavy grip on individual civil liberties.
This seems kind of useless unless we also ban all the bad drivers who aren’t very good even without the distractions of cellular devices.
And passengers?
This type of thing wouldn’t even even be an issue if people just had a bit of self control and DIDN’T talk on the phone while driving.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had cars try to veer into my lane and they never look, and I’m right next to them.
I don’t talk on the phone and drive. I’ll pull over, or have my conversation before I start the car, then explain I need to get off the phone since I’m going to be driving soon.
So, this is brilliant. I guess nobody ever thought of the scenario where you would be a *passenger* in the car.
Screw that, what about passengers in the car? I enjoy watching Netflix when my husband drives.
Why penalize the passenger
Wouldn’t anyone who bothered to “opt in” to this service possibly just not talk on their cellphone in their car in the first place?
I think this is bogus. What they are saying is you can’t use your phone if you are in a car period. If I am in the passenger seat, I won’t be able to use my phone b/c of this.
If they want consistency that people can’t talk/text while driving, then make it the law in all states. Right now it is not the law in all states. This is going from not having the rule in all states (and by extension not enforcing said rule in all states) to no one in a car can talk on the phone period.
I do not approve.
Save us Uncle Sugar, you are our only hope!
All these retarded texting and driving laws do is make people hold their phones lower in their lap while they drive so NONE of the road is in their vision instead of part of it, when they would hold the phone up in plain sight.
I’m glad I live in a police state. I’m really tired of things right now. TSA, The press, internet sites being seized, disabling my phone while it’s moving.
Leave my hands-free Bluetooth alone!
You’d think from the comments, there had never been a time without cell phones.
No cell use in a car =/= the end of the world.
According to the article, this could be something based in the cell phone tower itself. That is a bad idea. I’m an EMT and I frequently need to call dispatch & hospitals, and my patients sometimes need to make phone calls as well. Less urgently, ~20% of my working day is spent riding as a passenger while my partner drives us to a scene. Am I going to be unable to text during those times?
But what if you’re a passenger?
My god get out of my way government. Libertarianism is becoming more attractive to me every day.
This won’t get anywhere. People would rather risk death by distracted driving, than lose their ability to have a phone available when driving, even if it’s just for emergencies (say, like when a crash occurs due to distracted driving).
What about passengers?
hmmm… this will end bad just like all safety measures
I’m all for it assuming the technology to disable at speed works.
Loony idea. Maybe we need another U.S. Department of Transportation.
I saw this happening long ago. Existing laws like making it illegal to use a cell phone while driving are unenforceable, and even if one is caught on the phone, the ‘fine’ for using the phone isn’t enough of a deterrence.
If you’re going to blame someone, don’t blame the government, blame the people who skirt the laws and take advantage of the fact that they are unenforceable in the first place, which pushes the government to do something.
That’s more deaths per year than the 9-11 attacks! Bring on the storm troopers!
Since I have an unlocked cell phone and have complete control over the software, they’re going to have to jam it or regulate that my phone will not work anymore (probably at the cell tower, not that the towers don’t have other things to do.)
911 calls would still work – heck, even unactivated cell phones and phones w/o a SIM will allow you to dial 911. No reason to deny 911 calls from a moving vehicle.
Two words can bypass this: old phone
This is a dead end. Companies are pouring money into systems that require cellular data in the car. Google Navigation on Android phones needs data to work. Ford is implementing their Sync system to stream internet radio and more. Once special interests take note of this, it won’t happen. For once, I’ll agree with them.
I don’t care if I can’t place calls in the car, even if I’m a passenger. But I’ll be damned if I can stand another road trip with no data connection.
What?
i remember way way back that they were designing cars where you need both hand to operate the car. If both hands are not on after a certain time, it will cut power/fuel until the hands are return…. would’ve been nice if they actually got that working right.
/sigh/
Stupid. What about the GPS that’s on my phone? What about as zig said, I am in an emergency situation? I’ve called 911 many times while driving because I’ve seen a drunk driver or even a car on fire!
Maybe this doesn’t make to much sense, but why does the government care if someone dies while texting? I mean, does it really matter? it’s there own fault, not the governments. It’s not like hackers wont’s get a blocker for what ever software they come up with, and I wonder if they realize people hide phones and look down while texting now, this causes them to look away form the road. Maybe the government is causing these deaths. Could someone pleases explain why the Government cares so much?
Hell no. I hope this doesn’t happen.
This is typical American govt. Let’s disable phones while moving at speed to prevent this problem. By the way all of your passengers can no longer use their devices. No you can’t use your phone while on the bus. No you can’t use the phone while you are on the train. This is an example of idiocy, just like car rental places not allowing you to disable the safety systems on GPSs so that your PASSENGER can type in an address.
Rather than researching this CF, we could
1. Continue working on cars that drive themselves
2. Expand on systems like SYNC that connect the phone into the car so that at the very minimum they are hands free. TXT messages can be read, replys could be a short voice mms. (thinking about other things while driving is still dangerous, but at least your eyes and hands are where they are supposed to be.
3. Expanding on item #2 phones are taking on more and more tasks. Perhaps more advanced things other than payment devices they could also be used as keys to your car. Rather than borrowing keys you just authorize a person’s phone to start your car for a period of time (patent pending).
Improve, don’t restrict.
And then we wouldnt be able to use gps in our phones. Along with several other useful features. This is stupid.
This sounds like too much for them to try to figure out. So doees it disable everything with the phone like GPS. Guess all the people riding in the car don’t get to talk either. So what if the signal it puts out is a little too strong will I drop calls everytime someone who drives too fast past me.
I really doubt this will happen.
I am all for this………
If you want to kill yourself–that’s one thing.
It is not fair to put other innocent drivers in danger.
This is a sticky problem. You don’t want big brother in your business telling when and where to do what ever on the other hand you need to do something to protect you from ignorant drivers. For now I’ll just assume a distracted driver is just another obstacle in you must deal with out in public.
Life in public is sorta like becoming a video game where you have to deal with all the threats they throw at you. Instead of fire breathing monsters and the pit of death you have things like distracted drivers and terrorists. Instead of bonus points you get to live.
What if a passenger wants to talk on their cell? I’m ok with making texting and talking on a phone while driving illegal, but preventing it in this way blocks too many other peoples’ rights.
Also, seat belt laws for adults suck. Kinda related.
Nothing will stop people from talking and driving, it’s an addiction. If I could get $50 every time I see this happening I could live very comfortably.
Hopefully this won’t end up actually happening. Not all states have laws against driving with cell phones, and no states that I know of have any laws prohibiting the passengers from talking on a cell phone.
It would be a pain in the butt for road trips. Usually in my family the passenger of one car calls the passenger of the other and we pull off the road together (whether for food or to sleep). If we couldn’t call we’d have to make sure to either obsessively stick right on each others’ tails the whole two day drive, or just hope that whoever didn’t stop realized that the other car did stop in time to turn around and come back. (And I sure wouldn’t have been able to tell the other car when we had to pull off for a flat tire and discovered my jack was missing).
Not to mention there are emergency situations where someone needs to be called and they happen to be driving. When my brother fractured his arm a couple weeks ago the only person who had their phone on them was my mom, who was in a moving car at the time. When my mom’s head was caved in my dad had just started on a roadtrip; unless we had the magic to call him right as he stopped for gas we would have ended up not getting ahold of him until 14 hours later, only to tell him that he had to turn back right that second.
Admittedly those are anecdotal and specific, but if I can think of two instances that happened within the past month, I’m sure other people could easily think of similar ones. I refuse to look at texts or dial when I’m driving, but answering the phone takes away a lot less of my attention than trying to find a radio station does.
They just passed a law in my state making a seperate offense for texting while driving.
*Distracted driving is already illegal.*
The feds need to stop making worthless laws like this.
what about hands free? what about streaming audio over 3g?
No need to spend the millions to develop this technology. A simple end the prevelence of driving while talking/texting on mobile phone would be to enforce the same penalties as one receives for DUI. People will be much less likely to use their mobile phone while driving, if they know they could be forced to take a bus for the next 6 months. Also, this could be a huge revenue boosts for states will budget issues, or even better would be to use the fees to improves the roads and bridges.
Someday, maybe we’ll be able to block the stupid from driving entirely.
/hopeful
Simple answer: if a cop sees you talking on the phone while driving, he can yank your license and your phone and impound your vehicle on the spot – the last use of the phone you get is to call someone to pick your butt up off the side of the road. To get any of it back, you have to go talk to a judge.
That will stop it.
K, and what if someone needs to call me while I’m driving? I can easily answer the phone and pull over as soon as possible, but only if it rings.
How in the hell would this device work???
Wow, is this a bad idea. I do think that something needs to be done about the idiots who hold their phone up and jabber into it, not paying any attention to the cars around them, or the other idiots who text while driving. But this isn’t it. The cell phone is not just a toy. It has become an emergency communication device in many parts of the country. Not everyone lives in cities, or even near highways that have frequent patrols looking out for travelers in distress. Anyone who has ever gotten a flat tire out in the middle of nowhere, and had to wait hours after calling a tow truck service before they even see another vehicle, understands this. All of the people crying out about not being able to access 911 services have a very good point.
Obviously, blocking all phone reception in a moving vehicle is ridiculous. Not only does it annoy passengers, but it would have a serious impact on business. Many people consider their cars mobile offices, and do quite a bit of business on the phone. Most of those people use hands-free options. It’s no more or less dangerous than talking to a passenger IN THE CAR.
Lastly, I make several road trips a year, both for business and pleasure, that range anywhere from 200-2000 miles. The secret to driving so far is to keep yourself engaged while you are driving so that you don’t drift off. When the music gets boring, I start making calls. I have a blue tooth headset, and my new phone takes voice commands. I don’t even need to dial. With technology evolving in this way, why stifle it? They can’t stop us from speaking in our private vehicles. I see no difference in holding a conversation with someone via a piece clipped to my ear or a friend sitting next to me along for the ride.
This policy is like taking a hammer and smashing a problem that needs a torx driver. This is not the time to institute unreasonable requirements. Maybe someone can write software to allow the traffic cameras to recognize a phone being held up to a head on the driver’s side, and to auto issue a ticket if the license plate is visible. The photo and phone records could easily be used to contest calls for emergency situations.
Absolutely. You’re distracted while on the cellphone and people are already too crazy as it is.