Tech That Stops Distracted Driving - Comments Page 2

My daughter bought a Ford, do not know what kind, and she made phone calls by just pushing a button. She did not use a phone she just talked into something while she was driving. I asked her How did ya do that? And she said by phone through the car.

Anyway she made a call just by saying who she wanted to call and had a conversation with no phone in hand. Just driving and talking Wow

How hard is this? I can think of three ways to disable texting that are not defeatable:

1. All cell phones can be tracked by the towers and could detect each phone's motion. If over 10 mph then texting is disabled

2. Many cell phones have GPS. Have it run in the background to detect speed. Over 10 mph? Deny access to texting.

3. A near-field-device implanted in the steering wheel and the phone would disable the driver's phone but not the passenger's phones. Could be linked to speed detection as above.

Denis' answer to James' question about why conversing with passengers is not equally dangerous was exactly right. Callers often do not even know that they are speaking with someone who is driving at that moment. Even if informed, a caller will have no idea why the driver may be momentarily silent. It could be to ponder the next comment, or because they did not hear the question (with the driver then subject to pressure if the question gets repeated). But it could be that the driver is confused by a road sign, or trying to steer around a hazard..or has already crashed into something.

On the other hand, a passenger is literally in the same boat (well...the same car) as the driver and will know to pause the conversation based on the situation. (Kids, and non-drivers with no experience of their own behind the wheel are not quite as good at that, however.)

Radios and music systems are very minor distractions, since there is no interaction on the part of the driver - except maybe singing along out-of-tune! That said, the WebMD article at Bob's link points out that the use of one's brain for any non-driving tasks can reduce alertness and response time. So even calls with a handfree headset should be limited to incoming calls and only those so urgent that the caller can't wait for you to make the next exit, park safely and call them back.

As for sending or reading texts while driving, there is no excuse at all for that. It can always wait until you have parked somewhere. Since everyone, especially young people, are now texting almost exclusively instead of calling, this problem is going to get a lot worse if nothing effective is done about it.