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U.S. Transportation Department Proposes Simplified 'Driver Mode' to Help Curb Distracted Driving
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While I agree this is getting to be a problem, there is a big difference in when a person uses their phone. I will sometimes use my phone when I am on a straight and fairly empty road but when there are stoplights, traffic, poor road conditions, or whatever, I put it away. I feel like judgment is key but I know plenty of people lack that today.
Its unfortunate that companies feel like they need to do that with so many models now. I hope that steering wheel controls stay as well as tactile buttons. Some of us like wearing gloves in the winter, and not be limited to the touchscreen style gloves.
Found the automatic driver who doesn't understand how the power curve of their engine works and that dropping to lower gear with higher revs can offer far greater power for passing or emergency maneuvers
I don't currently own a manual tranny, but I will never buy a car that doesn't give me some manual override to my gear.
Interesting...but raises the question of if this will become something that the government tries to require...and if they do...well...what happens when I'm a passenger in a vehicle? I do concur that people definitely spend to much time not focusing on driving. Watched one lady nearly run into a curb in a merging lane as she was looking down and texting.
I was going to say he was talking utter Sh!te, but I think you put it better!
All phones should be voluntarily disabled for/by the driver while the car is moving period. Fiddling for songs is dangerous too.
Maybe some voluntary system will be useful, especially for parents of teenagers. At some point we either let people drive or we do not. Trying to regulate every possible variable that could distract them is silly. Isn't talk radio distracting? Maybe get rid of sound systems in cars so people don't listen to anything distracting? If talking on the phone hands-free is a distraction as I've been told, why not talking to your passengers? Do we ban passengers? Or do we allow passengers but forbid them from talking to the driver? Should mics be installed in the car to make sure passengers and driver don't speak to each other? How about mandatory breathalyzers in ALL cars that activate starting the engine? That should end drunk driving, right? Why not make cars that CANNOT go over whatever the speed limit is on the street they're driving on? There is certainly technology that would make that doable. Before we eliminate all possible mistakes that human drivers can make, we'll likely be onto driverless cars anyway.
I don't text and drive, but I do mount my phone to the dash and use it for GPS/directions, streaming music/Howard Stern to my car's system, etc. I don't see how that's any more dangerous than someone fiddling with the air conditioner or radio.
I don't text and drive, but I do mount my phone to the dash and use it for GPS/directions, streaming music/Howard Stern to my car's system, etc. I don't see how that's any more dangerous than someone fiddling with the air conditioner or radio.
I was part of a think tank a few years ago regarding the use of devices in vehicles. We did send a proposal to Apple, Google, MS, Blackberry about this very feature. Though at the time none of us could work out how to differentiate between a passenger and the driver without specialised tech built into the wheel.
I really do hope it happens. I would love a fluid OS that adapted to my situation or environment, but one smart enough to adapt for those of us with lifestyles that are dynamically scheduled.
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I really do hope it happens. I would love a fluid OS that adapted to my situation or environment, but one smart enough to adapt for those of us with lifestyles that are dynamically scheduled.
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It's all pretty dangerous and it just falls on the driver to be responsible. Unfortunately many aren't (the anger you get for suggesting people slow down!) but there's no other solution right now. The only car crash I was involved in was as a passenger when the driver was changing the AC settings. It was only 8mph!
Are we becoming a police state here? What?!
Listen bad idea.
I have a lot of friends and family members who insist on being on the phone, texting, sharing photos, snapchatting, changing playlists, taking selfies, putting on make up and eating full on meals behind the wheel while we car pool to and from recording studios, movie sets, fashion shows, screenings or concert halls etc.
As soon as they're eyes are not completely fixed on the road and other road related stuff, I literally ask them to let me out !!!! I'd rather be on a bus or train or go on foot with my gear. Should anything happen to my precious instruments, someone gonna pay with their lives
Anyway - a handful of my friends have gotten in MAJOR accidents which THEY caused and a handful more of my friends and some family are NO LONGER in my life. Luckily I wasn't in the car with them. That isn't the last thing I ever wanna feel or see.
ADS should use my experience to prevent stupid devices use behind the wheels - just write me for the rights.
©2016 - Vi An.
Listen bad idea.
I have a lot of friends and family members who insist on being on the phone, texting, sharing photos, snapchatting, changing playlists, taking selfies, putting on make up and eating full on meals behind the wheel while we car pool to and from recording studios, movie sets, fashion shows, screenings or concert halls etc.
As soon as they're eyes are not completely fixed on the road and other road related stuff, I literally ask them to let me out !!!! I'd rather be on a bus or train or go on foot with my gear. Should anything happen to my precious instruments, someone gonna pay with their lives
Anyway - a handful of my friends have gotten in MAJOR accidents which THEY caused and a handful more of my friends and some family are NO LONGER in my life. Luckily I wasn't in the car with them. That isn't the last thing I ever wanna feel or see.
ADS should use my experience to prevent stupid devices use behind the wheels - just write me for the rights.
©2016 - Vi An.
or one could just practice a little self-restraint. nobody's forcing you to use your phone while you drive, its a choice you're making on your own. I have a standing rule that I will not answer or use my phone while driving. Ive been doing this for about four years now. By this point enough people have heard me explain this that they no longer question it. even my boss gave me kudos for standing firm on it after he asked why I hadnt answered a call.
what really needs to happen is people need to move away from the instant-gratification culture we live in. If somebody can't wait 10 minutes to get a call back in a situation that isnt life-and-death then they need to re-examine some priorities.
what really needs to happen is people need to move away from the instant-gratification culture we live in. If somebody can't wait 10 minutes to get a call back in a situation that isnt life-and-death then they need to re-examine some priorities.
im against it in principle, but on the flip side we seem to be content with allowing the vapidly ignorant to do whatever they want whenever they want with little to no consequence. I have enough restraint to not play with my phone behind the wheel, if other people cant and we need to make a law, so be it. Honestly in 2016, I feel safer driving home at 2AM with drunks on the road, than I do at 4PM with soccer moms and businesspeople meandering in and out of a lane while they try to use their phone.
No the solution is to get rid of the damn smart phones or disable them entirely while driving unless connected through a hands-free vehicle system. Passengers don't REALLY need to use phones either. It can wait. How the hell did humans manage in the 1950s or 60s without cell phones to play with in the car? (Human drivers have done just fine until those things came out).
Even so, there's a real simple system one could use. If the vehicle you're in is your car then your phone should lock out any non-hands free and emergency functions until you stop moving. Put a chip in the car that emits a signal that locks to your cell phones (make cell phones forced to register and jail anyone that won't comply). You probably wouldn't use someone else's cell phone in your car so that would eliminate most of the problem. Don't like it? Tough crap. I don't want to die because you think you simply MUST check your damn email or text message while driving at 70mph! That should be an instant jail sentence! It can damn well wait (pull off the side of the road if it's such an emergency).
I blame Steve Jobs. He's responsible for more deaths on Earth than any tech guy before him not to mention aiding and abetting terrorists and turning our kids into imbeciles that can't do math without the calculator on their phone. Frankly, it's RIDICULOUS to the extent humans have become addicted to these damn cell phones. I think we'd be better off without ANY functions other than phone calls (i.e. no text messages, no Internet, etc.) People have become walking zombie MORONS and it's affecting social aspects of people (you'd think everyone was autistic; they don't relate to real humans anymore, just Facebook pages and texts). That's not progress. That's stupid.
Oh give me a flipping break. I have a hands-free system in my car (and had on in my previous two cars that were both stick shifts). I'm fully capable of hitting the "next song" button the steering wheel or "answer phone" without causing a wreck (in fact I've never caused a wreck in 26 years of driving). You don't have to take your eyes off the road for a second even. As for "still a distraction" the trick is to pause talking when at intersections or weird situations where a distraction could be an issue (not so hard; just treat it the same way you would with a passenger in the car, which is my whole point. In other words if you can't talk to someone in your car without swerving all over the freaking road, then you probably should not be driving period, let alone use any form of phone (hands free or not). People have to be smart about it. Unfortunately, most people are apparently not smart. I guess the "100 average" IQ in this world must be too damn low. Sadly, any attempts to only let smarter people breed get labeled as fascist or worse. However, I maintain low IQ is the cause of most accidents, not distractions because a "smart" person wouldn't try to text while driving and any reasonably competent driver can change the FM station without causing a wreck.
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This is how I feel.
I'd like to be idealistic that people should be smart enough not to do stupid risky boneheaded things like text and drive, or other distracting moronic things.
But we've all seen the numbers, and apparently my idealism is not often realized.
This is unfortunately where governments have to step in and put public safety first. I don't like it, but when the alternative is morons driving around killing others accidentally through reckless choices, what alternative is there.
As if laws - or government at all for that matter - actually protects anyone from anything.
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Jesus loves you.
To be fair, I have always had a learning disability with math and need calculator for basic math. This predates mobile phones by a good decade.
I once had an shmuck of a math teacher in grade 9 who refused to tutor me, give me outside of class help, belittled me in front of the class for my poor math skills. Flunked me despite squeezing out a 60% grade while all the time refusing to let me use a calculator because, and I quote
"What king of idiot are you, nobody is going to carry around a calculator in their pockets in the future, so you better learn to do all this stuff in your head or you have no business expecting to pass high school"
I've never said this about anyone else in my life, but when he dropped dead two years later in school. I cheered. And now I ca. Only loom back at how ignorant and wrong he was, and how I managed to get my high school and college diplomas despite him and my math issues and I do in fact have a calculator in my pocket almost all the time.
I think car manufacturers should take some responsibility here.
I have a Renault Captur, new less than six months ago and I can just about receive a call on it without being distracted but the entire R(ubbish)-Link 'infotainment' (who on earth coined that phrase for 80s technology) thing is just unusable - total utter rubbish! Anyone wonder what happened to Clive Sinclairs ZX Spectrums? Renault bought them, downgraded them and installed them in their cars.
I don't use my phone in the car but if I wanted to AND via the 'infotainment' then I simply couldn't. It is utter rubbish.
Car manufacturers should be compelled to offer 21st century technology such as CarPlay or the Android one. THAT would cut down on accidents.
I have a Renault Captur, new less than six months ago and I can just about receive a call on it without being distracted but the entire R(ubbish)-Link 'infotainment' (who on earth coined that phrase for 80s technology) thing is just unusable - total utter rubbish! Anyone wonder what happened to Clive Sinclairs ZX Spectrums? Renault bought them, downgraded them and installed them in their cars.
I don't use my phone in the car but if I wanted to AND via the 'infotainment' then I simply couldn't. It is utter rubbish.
Car manufacturers should be compelled to offer 21st century technology such as CarPlay or the Android one. THAT would cut down on accidents.
Ya, your'e right. It's only a lost life every day. No biggie.
Then you're still not "focusing on driving" either. Apparently there is a world of difference, by the government's own admission, otherwise they would be advocating locking the whole thing out.
The world has had heating/cooling, radio/cassette/8-track/CD and other controls - which also constitute "not focusing on driving" - but has been happy to live with them. Hell, the earliest cars had a dude walking in front waving a lantern.
If you don't accept the difference between changing songs and texting/Facebooking, then you should also be advocating for removing everything not directly related to driving from the dashboard/console (or at least the driver's side)... starting with the entire in-dash screen. Because it's the same argument.
Let's also get rid of speed enforcement: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2016/10/study-finds-that-strict-speed-enforcement/
Otherwise, you acknowledge that there are certain environmental controls that are part of the driving experience, and that those may reside on the in-dash screen or even a disconnected screen... a phone.
EDIT: Also kids. Let's get rid of kids, possibly the greatest driving distraction of all. Particularly since you won't be able to change anything on the entertainment system, since it's apparently indistinguishable from texting/Facebooking.
How committed to "distraction-free driving" are you really? I mean, if you're not willing to sacrifice to save every single life possible, well...
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Clearly, I'm not talking about a learning disability, but a dependency on technology simply because it's easier (i.e. calculators existed back when I was in school and most of the kids wanted to know why they couldn't use them). The problem is when you don't have a calculator on hand, you won't be able to do any math and I can at least see that perspective as in the old days we didn't all have iPhones in our pockets (I did have a Casio Databank Watch for a long time that had a calculator in it, though).
But from what people at work that have kids right now tell me about the current math methods, no one memorizes math tables anymore which from my perspective means everyone's counting on their hands and toes or using a calculator anyway, which defeats the point from what I learned. In college, I started doing long division in my head even because it saved time (I needed my scientific calculator for graphing and other things and having two calculators with me got to be a pain too).
I once had a Calculus 2 teacher in college that couldn't teach the damn class and 3/4 the class dropped including me and I never had so much as a "C" in my entire life to that point. I had to change majors since he was the ONLY teacher teaching Calc2 in the Science college at the time (I switched from Computer Science to Electronic Engineering Technology which was in the tech college instead and had different teachers). Oddly most of the teachers in the science college were foreigners and hard to understand with their accents, etc., while every single teacher in the tech college was an American and other than a Tennessee accent, they were pretty easy to understand. But that was not the case with the Calc2 teacher (he was an American). He was just a bad teacher. I had to drop his class or I would lose my scholarship which required a certain grade average (and I never even got a "C" in 7 years of college, let alone an "F"). Like I said, 3/4 the class dropped and I remember hearing him telling some other teacher out in the hall how we were all lazy and stupid or something. Yeah, I took Calc2 a two years later in the tech college (they didn't use it until year 3) and that teacher was available before class to answer homework questions, etc. and the bottom line is that I got 100% on the final and an A in the class so to me that proved it was the teacher that was the problem not me. Math was never my strongest subject, but a lousy teacher doesn't help anyone learn anything.
Perhaps not. But if technology can be applied to prevent stupid people from needlessly endangering others, I'd look forward to that.