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Chevrolet Promoting Siri 'Eyes Free' Integration for 2013 Sonic in New TV Ad
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Yes, but it makes a difference. You should have both hands on the steering wheel while you drive. Using a phone with one hand to talk to Siri is still a distraction.
Anything that distracts you while driving can be a safety issue but if you can press one button to do many commands must improve safety assuming it all works. I've used hands free to make and receive calls. I have BlueTooth built into my car's sound system. And the biggest issue is remembering the commands and hearing other people.
BTW last I checked it's still legal to touch your GPS here but not your cell phone, unless it's mounted and not in you hand. BUT if you cause a crash while using them you will be charged accordingly.
Using a GPS must be much safer than trying to look at a paper map while on the move.
FYI I have a manual car and it's so old it doesn't have power windows!
BTW last I checked it's still legal to touch your GPS here but not your cell phone, unless it's mounted and not in you hand. BUT if you cause a crash while using them you will be charged accordingly.
Using a GPS must be much safer than trying to look at a paper map while on the move.
FYI I have a manual car and it's so old it doesn't have power windows!
And I suppose my gears will just shift themselves?
A good driver doesn't even have to look at the gear when changing it. Never heard of an accident happened because the driver was changing the gears. It's a part of your driving and not meant to distract you. Using mobile phone while driving on the other hand.....
I just hope when Darwin comes for the idiots who think it's safe to interact with their phone while driving, I'm nowhere around.
I never said otherwise. You said both hands must remain on the wheel at all times, which isn't true.
A new iPad w/o a new OS doesn't really make much sense. Any new feature is going to be OS based, not hardware, so what you'd get is the very same "makeover" release you are railing about w/ the 4.
Personally, I agree the 4 was uninspired & did not warrant an upgrade from my 3. But at this point I'm not interested in spending $600 on an iPad 5, even if it is thinner & lighter, until I see what iOS 7 brings to the table. That is where the gold is buried.
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A good driver doesn't even have to look at the gear when changing it. Never heard of an accident happened because the driver was changing the gears. It's a part of your driving and not meant to distract you. Using mobile phone while driving on the other hand.....
Exactly. Shifting gears "blind" is a combo of muscle memory & tactile response which are not possible on a touch screen.
Sorry, I call BS on that. I use it all the time, and find it extremely reliable.
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I am one of those people, and I'm not on drugs.
OK, but its not any MORE unreliable than existing car voice command systems & I've yet to see any scientific correlation or even plausible casual theories between road rage by non short fused drivers & those systems. Seems to me anyone who gets that PO'd at ineffective voice command should a) opt to not use it & b) see a doc for anger management issues. What you speak of is not the vast gen. public.
I'm with you. That Prius is ugly. The stereotype of American cars being substandard has been busted a long time ago. Hondas are nothing like they used to be; both Chevy and Ford blow away the latest Honda Civic offering IMHO.
True to a point, but in reality US cars rose to the middle from the basement while Japanese cars fell to the middle from the heavens. Hyundai and Kia are the new value "it" brands which is why you see so many on the road. Higher midend & lux US and Japanese cars (28k+) are getting schooled by German made cars though @ similar price point.
I'm sure the numbers look great on paper but I rather know under which conditions those numbers apply.
Not quite sure what you mean?
Prius gets 51/48, Fusion 47/47. Less if you're flooring them, more if they're falling off a cliff.
While I'm against texting while driving (one should keep their eyes on the road), this idea that you should have both hands on the wheel at the same time all of the time is absurd. First of all, I have a 5-speed manual (Subaru WRX) and it's impossible to keep both hands on the wheel and still shift the car. In fact, if you're NOT comfortable driving with one hand, you shouldn't be driving a stick ever (or perhaps any car at all, really since you never know when you might have to, whether a tired arm, cramp or injury). An experienced driver knows conditions were they are more likely to need both hands (e.g. passing in a blizzard comes to mind), but even then you need to shift sometimes.
Besides, try driving with both hands on the wheel in the 10/2 'oclock position for over 5 hours crossing a road like Pennsylvania on I-80. It's just a straight road (i.e. not even a need to turn more than switching into a passing lane) and your arms will get tired and if you have both of them on the wheel at all times in that position. That, IMO is infinitely more dangerous over time than any extra leverage you might need in an emergency situation. Unlike years in the past, almost every car out there now has power steering, most of which need little more than a pinky finger at freeway speeds to move over so the safety threats involved for an experienced driver (new drivers should use both hands until they are more experienced handling a vehicle under a wide range of conditions) are minimal. Your attention is 1000x more important.
Even a cell phone (or CBs back in the day and still for trucking) can be handled reasonably safely if you keep your attention focused more on the road (more so with hands free, but where you keep your attention is far more important than not having a hand free and dialing is the most dangerous part with a phone; one should only dart their eyes they way they would with their guage cluster, not STARE at it so their attention is away from the road; THAT is when problems occur). Some people are clearly better at this sort of thing than others (else we would have had far more accidents with commercial trucking over the years since they have had CBs for a LONG time). Texting cannot be done safely because of the position of the device and the amount of focus required to do it. Hands-free cell is less dangerous because you have both arms free and voice dialing, but it's still a question of distraction and priority. The road should come first and if you cannot talk and drive at the same time, you shouldn't do it even with other passengers in the car. But frankly, people that cannot talk to a passenger without weaving all over the place probably shouldn't even have passengers in the car with them since they're a driving menace.
A person should know their limitations and frankly, there should be more courses offered in more places for advanced driving and obstacle courses, etc. The better a driver in extreme conditions, the better the driver will be in mundane ones as well. I don't know how many accidents I've avoided over the years knowing when to brake vs. when to dodge (and the latter takes a light touch at high speeds to maintain control). Then we have the lack of turn signals in this day and age (even cops don't use them) and that makes things even more dangerous. Frankly, I'm glad to have MORE power today than ever before (yeah my gas mileage sucks with over 300HP and AWD), but I can avoid situations and pass cars more safely than any Prius out there.
I completely agree. I am a certified professional driver, I can handle a few well-timed glances at my phone thank you very much.
The problem isn't people who have distractions while driving; the problem is people who can't respond to distractions responsibly.
I participated in a study at my school which involved me following a car in a driving simulator and (I found out later) not hitting it when it eventually stopped short. They subjected me to a whole bunch of different distractions I needed to respond to, with the overall goal being to test my responsiveness to different "impending accident" warning sounds. I didn't even realize they were using different sounds each time, reason being that was just another distraction to me; my focus was on what lay ahead of me, as it should be. I never hit the car.
OK Mr "I am politically correct"
But you know what I meant. I know that you can't shift the gears with your teeth.
I believe the regulation is for a good reason. While you (or me for that reason) may feel comfortable and have the necessary experience to drive while having one hand on the steering wheel and the other doing whatever.... give the message to everyone that only one hand is enough on the steering wheel while driving (especially to young drivers) and you may not find it very funny if you get involved in an accident because of that. And com on, don't give me that "shifting gear" crap! It only takes a fraction of second to do that and without taking your eyes from the road. Playing with your phone takes a full hand and half of your concentration.
WHAT regulation? I have been unable to find any federal (or for my state) regulation regarding driving with one hand versus two. The law is normally to maintain control of your vehicle, usually interpreted as having at least one hand on the wheel. Local/city ordinances may vary.
There are new laws in many areas regarding texting and even cell phone use and I know at least one township that has a broader definition where they could pull you over for drinking a soda (they denied they would in an interview so long as the other hand was on the wheel), but generally speaking, there appears to be a lot of confusion online about things that are taught in driver's education versus the real world (e.g. the 10-2 hand position is pretty standard, but 9-3 and even 8-4 is now recommended with cars that have air-bags since there is a danger of breaking your wrists and/or having the air bag shove your arm back into your face if it goes off during a crash, but NONE are "law").
Shifting properly with rev-matching (as opposed to slipping the clutch which prematurely wears it) can take over a second in long gears and avoids that unpleasant "jerk" sensation you get when someone who doesn't know how to drive a stick just drops it at the wrong engine speed. And unless you have uncanny timing from practice with a given car, you'll probably need to take your eyes off the road for a moment to glance at the tachometer (most cars don't have heads-up displays yet) to make sure you're at the right engine speed to avoid that unpleasant jerk.
Similarly, you don't force the stick into the next gear; you wait for the syncro to do its job (or double clutch if you prefer) to avoid premature wear there as well. And if you're accelerating quickly to freeway speeds, there isn't much point is moving your arm back to the steering wheel since the next shift will come up in a couple of seconds anyway and you'd just have to move it right back again, meaning anywhere from perhaps 4-12 seconds (depending on your car's power and how hard you're accelerating) periods with one hand on the wheel. Then there's turn signals, delay wipers, climate control, etc. to attend to at different points. I'd be more worried about someone I'm riding with who is white knuckling the steering wheel all the time. And yes, that includes beginners who should keep their hands on the wheel most of the time until they learn control.
Personally, I've never caused any accidents in over 22 years of driving (20 with a stickshift), so I'm fairly certain my driving habits aren't super dangerous, unlike the two people that have hit me over the years (one was drunk from behind and the other was half asleep after driving 12 hours straight from South Carolina and ran a 4-6 second dead red light).
So do I care if someone is holding a phone in their hand? Only if it's causing a problem (i.e. they're ignoring a green light, showing me they're not paying attention or worse yet swerving all over the road). I do think too many people are talking on the phone too often, however and it's hard to say who is paying attention and who isn't when they're just driving along the freeway, but the same could be said about people that might be falling asleep. I won't know there's something wrong until I see indications of it.
Personally, I only make a call when it's really important and I have Blue-Tooth hands free with voice control built into my car. Answering a call with hands free, however, is not really any different than talking to a passenger. If you can't manage to do that, you shouldn't be driving at all, IMO. I certainly don't want to drive anywhere near someone with that poor of concentration and/or motor skills.
It's pretty obvious watching people the biggest danger with an actual phone in the hand is when they have to look down to pick it up (because it's not in a holder on the dash where they can reach without looking) and looking down to see who is calling and/or to dial. THAT is bad news and why hands free bluetooth is a very good idea. But the idea someone simply cannot talk and drive at the same time even with hands free systems and still be reasonably safe (who doesn't talk to a car passenger?) is akin to saying no one can rub their head and belly at the same time (and/or chew gum). It's just not true.
You know what is worse? Those who stop and take the time to point out so called "obnoxious" comments. Wasted space.
I hope to see Siri integration in more vehicles before 2016. Because we all know what is supposed to happen then...
"Siri, call Uncle Buck"
"Sorry Jim, Siri is unavailable at the moment. Please wait until Google is finished taking you to your destination"
Really? I have. 2012 Edge and it's great. Full integration with my phone, button on the steering wheel, etc. push the button, say 'phone', say 'call 'whomever', phone rings, conversation comes over the radio speakers, hang up. All phone contacts loaded into Sync. Can voice text. Drive by drive directions. Can play all my tunes that are loaded (although i rarely do since i have Sirius). What's not to love?