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Auto Safety Experts Concerned About CarPlay and Distracted Driving

Sounds like someone is just mad at Apple!

Because this is definitely the only real solution I have seen so far, especially utilizing siri, a proven voice command feature - rather than some generic version that comes with the car.

I do, however, agree that it does add to the level of distraction, regardless. I prefer leaving my iPhone in my pocket or glove box, and it never comes out while I am driving.
 
Considering the amount of deaths through car accidents every year, driving should be illegal all in itself...
 
How is this any different then someone using AppRadio 3 or similar items with their phones, iPhone, Android, BB, or Windows phone? How is this any different than current infotainment dashes in cars? Or using 3rd party gps systems that mount on the windshield? Or old fashioned dashboards with no high tech system, fiddling with radio dials or AC settings?

I swear it's just more "Haters gonna hate" on Apple.
 
Let me guess....just like with Touch ID, when a competitor comes out with a similar solution (and don't they already exist?!?) all these concerned groups will be no where to be found. Still waiting for Al Franken's letter to Samsung with all his concerns about their fingerprint scanner on the Galaxy S5. :rolleyes:

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kmoreau48 said:
Maybe the Messages application should not be included in Carplay, but other than that how is Carplay any different than current touch screen radio/GPS in terms of safety?
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From what I understand the messages app only works with Siri.
 
Well, exactly ....

The "safety experts" are probably really saying they simply want a "zero tolerance" policy for cellphones in vehicles. Don't take a call, make a call, view anything the phone tries to display or interact with it in any way, shape or form while driving.

Realistically though? That's just not ever gonna happen. The people with the willpower (or some might say, those anal enough) to do this are already doing it.

Everyone else will, indeed, decide to take an important call while driving, in the interest of using the "on the road" time more efficiently (plus, the call might have something to do with where you're going). You may be able to convince them to stop trying to text while driving (which I think is a good idea, because that's way too interactive a process to juggle safely while behind the wheel). But anything letting you at least listen to your incoming texts without touching the phone or looking at it directly? That's a safety benefit over the alternative it will tempt the vast majority to do.


goobot said:
So what they are saying is they rather have someone drive with one hand while digging through their pocket for the phone with the other hand? It's better to look down at a phone to dial a # rather than looking forward? Its better to drive with one hand because you are using the other to hold the phone for navigation? LOL, ok.
Click to expand...
 
safe sex debate

this is essentially the same as the safe sex, condoms in school debate... and it's absurd. most teenagers are going to have sex, if condoms are available they may have safe sex. people are not going to stop using their mobile devices in their cars. better integration is a major step forward and it should be embraced. it's obviously not hard to imagine items being projected on the windshield - maps, mph, gas warnings etc. and as long as it's not overbearing it will keep more eyes on the road.
 
Be honest folks, it's ALL distracting, hands free or whatever brand. We grown used to it but none of it is really safe.
 
I am SO incredibly tired of people who whine that any reasonable concerns and discussions about safety constitute some tyrannical infringement on our unrestricted liberties.

Knobs and sliders can be operated by touch without taking your eyes off of the road. You all know that .
Phone conversations are different than conversations with someone in the car simply because a person in the car is sharing the same space/reality as you and will likely not demand your conscious attention if road conditions indicate.

Go to a funeral of a bicyclist killed because someone was fishing for a cd or tuning a radio. All existing capabilities. You really want to throw the door open to dozens of other distractions without at least thinking about it?

Everything's on the table when it comes to safety.
Help or shut up.
 
It's not that safety experts have a bias against Apple, there are smart just like everyone else who realizes that Apple stories generate clicks.

They want publicity and where better to get publicity than standing next to Apple, even if that means criticizing them.

Unfortunately, these safety experts live in a mythological world where people will just put aside their connected devices while in the car for betterment of mankind.

Apple lives in the real world where they know people are going to use it, legal or not, and so are trying to make it so that it has as little impact as possible.
 
kingtj said:
The "safety experts" are probably really saying they simply want a "zero tolerance" policy for cellphones in vehicles. Don't take a call, make a call, view anything the phone tries to display or interact with it in any way, shape or form while driving.

Realistically though? That's just not ever gonna happen. The people with the willpower (or some might say, those anal enough) to do this are already doing it.

Everyone else will, indeed, decide to take an important call while driving, in the interest of using the "on the road" time more efficiently (plus, the call might have something to do with where you're going). You may be able to convince them to stop trying to text while driving (which I think is a good idea, because that's way too interactive a process to juggle safely while behind the wheel). But anything letting you at least listen to your incoming texts without touching the phone or looking at it directly? That's a safety benefit over the alternative it will tempt the vast majority to do.
Click to expand...

I'm not that pessimistic.
The beauty of having the driver's phone control the console and send displays to it is that the phone then becomes a much simpler choke point.
Your phone is plugged into the system for a car that is in gear and moving? Then some features are disable, like visual display of text that requires reading, the soft keyboard on the phone, etc.
Only Siri control is allowed for input and display beyond simple icons.
If there's a possibility of making cars safer, then we have to look at it.
 
dwhittington said:
Then fix the technology in the rest of the vehicle.
Click to expand...
Exactly.

It's 2014, why isn't the ***king car driving itself?!?!? I hate driving with a passion, and I didn't own a car for years because it's nothing more than a miserable experience of traffic and throwing money at it for gas, insurance, etc.

Get the car to drive itself so I can **** with my iGadgets safely on the road.

:cool:
 
acey said:
"The idea that people want to be on their phones, and therefore let's give them a way to do that -- that's not putting safety first, that's putting convenience and the desire to be in touch first"

Well, what about the alternative? People looking down and using their phones while they drive. People don't want to be off the grid just because they are in the car. A easy to use and intuitive system is the way to go, not sticking your head in the sand and act as if there is no need for a service like this.
Click to expand...

Perhaps when your son or daughter gets killed be someone who could not bear to be "off the grid" whilst they were supposed to be concentration on driving, you may THEN change your mind about what's important.
 
Carplay is infinitely less distracting than me fiddling around with my phone in 70mph traffic trying to find the right podcast. Missing the point here.
 
Burtons and dials are more direct, easier to use with less need to look for direction than a touch screen. That is what I got from the video of Carplay in use. Example touching screen to slide a temperature up from the Volvo concept video. That one is not good for safety.

Look is great but so so in practice.

The one thing this article focus on, using Carplay as a Phone is not the big security issue.
 
Mr Fusion said:
Exactly.

It's 2014, why isn't the ***king car driving itself?!?!? I hate driving with a passion, and I didn't own a car for years because it's nothing more than a miserable experience of traffic and throwing money at it for gas, insurance, etc.

Get the car to drive itself so I can **** with my iGadgets safely on the road.

:cool:
Click to expand...

OK. How about an Android or Windows OS to drive that for ya?
 
BJMRamage said:
we need to also remove heating and cooling knobs, radios and anything else.
Click to expand...

Come on. Are you really saying that turning a temperature knob takes up anywhere near as much attention as going into a multitouch UI to repond to a call or fiddle with a map? Distracted driving is about how much of your ATTENTION and cognative ability is shifted away from monitoring the road ahead. A conceptually simple task like hitting a radio "seek" button or turning an AC dial is not even remotely in the same league as the kind of deep UI business involved in operating a smartphone (whether it's a phone in your hand or one whose functionality is embedded in a dashboard).

Some here have pointed out correctly that people are *already* distracting themselves by texting or operating their phones while they're driving. But if they're going to integrate the device into the vehicle, it should be with the aim of simplifying the driver's interaction. Let's hope we're in a valley right now and the UI (Siri or whatever) will soon become smart enough that drivers can just fire off voice commands to their "virtual assistant" and not deal with the screen at all.
 
I would be distracted too...

By the fact that I have a 2007 looking interface on my brand new expensive 2014 car.

Seriously, I know Apple thinks they are the king of all things digital, but have they even bothered to look at the competition when it comes to in car interfaces?

Putting an Apple TV circa 2007 interface in a brand new car is like also equipping it with a Victor Photograph.

Its this lack of effort which is worrying me about the post-Jobs Apple. They just seem to want to rush something to market but don't care about the aesthetics or quality of it, which was Microsoft's modus operandi for decades.

I don't care if Apple wants to be the technology behind the interface, providing their services and "cloud" solutions to the car, but may more car manufactures have spent way more effort and money about the aesthetics of their interior then what went into this Car Play product. Apple most likely offers no ability to skin this interface assuming they are the best when it comes to in car interfaces, but its a shame when all these car companies just swallow up this crap on the appeal of having Apple in their car without a second though to usability and aesthetics.

Hopefully ALL these companies offer model variants with or without this integration. I have seen better **** out of the RadioShack line of car stereos. In this case Apple should be happy to provide the infrastructure, but let more talented designers create the interface.
 
Hummm…. I think most people want the features of their smart phones weather it's on the dash or not. At least with it integrated it's more designed for the driver.
 
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