Slashdot Mirror
Car Cellphone Bans Driving Bluetooth
jmatheny14 noted that the BBC is running an article about an unexpected side effect of car cellphone bans. It says"Legislation banning the use of mobile phones in cars is spurring car manufactures to look for alternatives such as Bluetooth." and "Because it can be used with a hands-free headset that can connect to a mobile phone even if the device is some distance away, it could be a perfect way to get around the ban."
Why ban?
\m/
Um... has nobody heard of hands free headsets?
uh newsflash.
This is one of those laws where most people ignore it. Like Jaywalking, Speeding, and Sodomy!
It's difficult to enforce, due to the lack of similar laws in neighboring cities and townships.
"Sorry, Jim, going into Suffolk county now, gotta hang up cause there's signs everywhere! I'll reach ya via bluetooth!"
fslg503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8686503-985-8
I have always liked the idea of being able to take an address from your PC, transfer it to your PDA with contact information, and if your really having problems finding it - beaming it to your car's navigation computer to find the directions to get to said person's house - eliminating re-entry and it's associated problems.
And if it would make a universal standard for hands-free talking on a cell phone - why not? Granted, there will be people who will abuse it - and dumb people who will crash because they are using distracting features while driving, but perhaps they shouldn't be driving in the first place.
when I connect w/the driver's face after he hits me b/c he was too busy talking to someone else instead of paying attention to where he was going.
It is not just the fact that cellphone take one hand away from the wheel it is also the dialing, the looking for a phonenumber, the dropping your cell phone and looking for it under your seat, while keeping one eye on the road and the foot on a the pedal. Until, a car product can get rid of these "dangers" that cell phone cause, things will remain the same.
dam(U)
Useless sig.
When did cellphones gain sentience, let alone power to pass laws? And when did they become our masters, telling us where we can use our technology and where -- hang on, lemme get that...
It isn't the actual holding of the cellphones that causes the danger, it just increases it. There was an experiment conducted, where a professional obstacle course driver was asked to count from 1 to 100 while navigating the course, and wasn't able to do it. His driving ability decreased by as much as 90% from simply counting. Bluetooth advancing is good and well, but not at the price of another increase in car accidents. As if drunk teens weren't enough....
I bought an Ericsson T68i phone because of iSync and its connection to the phone via Bluetooth -- lets you also send SMS from the computer. Nothing sucks more about a cell phone than trying to use the keypad to enter phone book items. Plus the Ericsson T68 is pretty much a Palm killer with its Calendar and voice recorder.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I don't understand this. What does using a BlueTooth enabled headset have to do with a ban on Cell phones while driving?
Does the proposed ban make an exception for headsets? If so does it also allow wired headsets? Or wireless technologies other than BlueTooth? And how would having BlueTooth built into the car make any difference?
And why is everyone so excited about wireless Bluetooth headsets anyway? This seems like overkill when traditional, cheap, analog wireless would accomplish the same thing.
-Jason
I can't say that I don't give a fuck. I've just run out of fuck to give.
Gives a whole new meaning to war driving.
Pull up beside someone with a BlueTooth enabled phone and make a call.
I know in New York State, cell phones are banned while driving, however you ARE allowed to use a cell phone while driving if you have a hands free kit. Now, by their standards, anything with a headset is hands free, so the people who were already making bluetooth headsets get an added bonus, and no one is breaking any laws.
I don't get what they want to do here.
Why is bluetooth built into a car any better from just using a normal wired or wireless hands-free set?
That picture is messed up too. Maybe if that guy wasn't driving on the wrong side of the road there wouldn't be so many safety hazards.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
side EFFECT guys.... I'm not sure what a side affect is, but I'm fairly sure I don't want it anywhere near me.
People try to do way too many things while driving. I have a bad habit of talking on the phone, as well as switching CDs. Driving is difficult b/c it can be so unpredictable, and people lose sight of that fact. Here's some articles on use of telematics while driving:
My company recently did a study on telematics use and driver/user attention, and it was pretty freaky how poorly people were able to attend to their main task while performing the secondary telematics task.
Todd
-- !todd erases a red dot! I steal music on the internet.
and now this! Anus holes.
it should just be a crime to drive inattentively or to create diversions for yourself.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The issue of cell phones in cars is somewhat serious. I know a couple people who have been involved in accidents because they were talking on their cell phones and didn't have time to react. A person who is holding their phone up to their ear is more occupied and so is less likely to be able to respond in a timely fashon.
Some form of headsets are a good idea. They require less attention to the phone and allow the driver to simply talk without worrying about holding the phone up. However, even those cheap $20 ones work just fine for this purpose.
Using bluetooth for this makes bluetooth seem like an answer searching for a question. Using bluetooth would just be using hype to sell super-expensive headsets. I think those cheap one will suffice.
Of course... I don't need any sort of headset. I am an excellent driver and I can concentrate on the road without a headset...
neurostarHow many of you have your kids quiet in the car while driving? How many of you don't like driving with passengers because... they are a distraction? ANYTHING that distracts you from the most immediate and important task - DRIVING - should, pardon the pun, take an immediate and complete back seat to anything but driving when you are on the road. Hundreds upon hundreds of accidents each year should drill that concept into you. It's no wonder I see more and more luxury-class vehicle accidents than I do even drunk driving incidents anymore. High speed and cellphones are the new alcohol intoxication of today's highways.
I think with the interesting people, their lives can't possibly be wrapped up into a nice little package.
In the post it says they ban the use of them in cars. Does that mean no using cell phones inside a car, no holding a cell phone while driving, or what?
"What we have here is a failure to communicate"
The Warden, Cool Hand Luke
has nobody heard of hands free headsets?
When a fellow talks on the phone while driving, even with a headset, the conversation still reduces his concentration to the level of a driver at the legal limit for alcohol intoxication.
Will I retire or break 10K?
We should note studies such as this one that show hands free cell phones also cause dangerous distractions while driving.
http://www.nsc.org/library/shelf/inincell.htm
"In sum, we found that conversing on either a hand-held or hands-free cell phone led to significant decrements in simulated driving performance. We suggest that the cellular phone use disrupts performance by diverting attention to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving.
Our data suggest that legislative initiatives that restrict hand-held devices but permit hands-free devices are not likely to reduce interference from the phone conversation, because the interference is, in this case, due to central attentional processes."
I'm not exactly sure what options you have to have, or even if its out yet, etc (I think it is; should I be posting this? I'm sure its announced somewhere), but they have voice recognition for both dialing numbers and names. You have to program the names in and associate it with one of your memory slots. You activate by holding a button the steering wheel, which then prompts you, "Number please." It works pretty well, and with very little distraction from the road. All the hands-free stuff is built into the car.
They're investigating bluetooth mostly for the convienance that you don't even have to plug the phone into the car when you get in. Its in your briefcase? Thats fine! Of course, you still have to plug it in if you want your phone to charge (or, not discharge) while you drive. Not sure if it has the power to turn the phone on if its off.
(FYI -- the BMW systems relies on a specific Motorola phone (one of the StarNet varieties) which has support for their telephony functions. You can take the phone with you, but it needs to be plugged into the car system for it to integrate with the telephony functions. Also FYI, I have first hand experience with the system, and not by using some prototype at a car show, although I'm not sure if it was a final retail car, either. If it isnt release yet, I'm sure they'll have it out really soon. No idea when to expect bluetooth.)
The space unintentionally left unblank.
The risk from cell phones comes from the fact that you are talking: your mind is on the conversation, not the road. To really solve the problem, one would have to ban talking in cars. That could be... impractical.
Perhaps education would make a difference. There's a lot of seat-belt propaganda, but I haven't seen any "god damn it, pay attention!" propaganda. Too bad, really.
Of the dozens or so posts so far, the majority seem to have read the headline as if it was proclaiming that there is now a ban on "Driving Bluetooth" (good thing, too. The last thing we need is wireless protocols driving cars around), rather than the true meaning of the subject, which is
Manufacturer's Interest in Bluetooth Increasing Due to Car Cellphone Ban
Parsing headlines is like parsing Chinese; with no articles, the reader needs to use a bit more context.
"Car cellphone bans" == "Restrictions on mobile phones in cars". (Any kind of restriction is called a "ban" in headlinese.) "Driving Bluetooth" == "Encouraging the development of Bluetooth technology". Thus, this story is about the fact that restrictions on mobile phones in cars have encouraged the development of Bluetooth technology.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Yeah, but if you concentrate too much on driving you will get tunnel vision and probably kill some people. I drive with the radio on to keep sane, but it doesn't distract me enough that I become unaware of my surroundings. Then again, one could argue that enough Clear Channel WILL drive you insane.
...and my company did a study on how having many links in /. posts directly affects karma. you get +2 for the google links, but I'm gonna hafta give ya -1 for the dot.gov reference (*shudder*)
... oh shoot I posted. so much for my mod abilities.
Research indicates the problem with using a cell phone while driving is the distraction of conducting a phone conversation while also controlling a car, not the hands off the steering wheel. Drivers using a head-set experience the same increase in accident rate (to a level similar to driving drunk) as drivers using a cell-phone. See this legal discussion.
I was living working and driving in NYC around the time of its ban. NYC's rules were that u couldnt have anything in your hands. So an eirpiece is fine. Blueteeth eirpieces go for $150US+. And they are so easy to lose. Altough a complete ripoff at 15$, my wired one has been excellent for 3 years now. I can actually use my hands while working at home as well (mobile phone is my only (traditional) means of voice comm.)
-- -- --
Help my mini cause: My journal
I haven't seen any "god damn it, pay attention!" propaganda.
There was this sort of, a while back. It was aimed at teenagers though, not cell phone users. It would start out like a typical commercial marketing to teenagers, a bunch of kids driving in a car goofing around, and then wham something would slam into them or they would slam into something. Really pretty unnerving because it was so unexpected.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Legislation banning the use of mobile phones in cars is spurring car manufactures to look for alternatives such as Bluetooth.
Gee...it's too bad their vision is sp clouded by dollar signs that they can't see what the customer *really* wants.
Why do people talk on cellphones? Because they want to be more productive...whether it's just chatting with a friend about whatever, or talking to the spouse about what to pick up at the store, or getting your ass chewed by the boss for missing a deadline...Cellphones are useful because they allow us to be productive during time when life is otherwise wasted.
Hold your screams for a minute.
I attend college around five hours from my hometown. Whenever me and my girlfriend decide we want to go home for the weekend, that 48 hour weekend is chopped down to 38 hours, since we lose 10 hours in travel time. That's time that I can't do anything useful with...study, read, play a game, nothing.
Perhaps automobile manufacturers should get past the marketing hype and actually market a feature that customers want and have been sociologically clamoring for the last decade - Self-driving cars. I would easily pay double the price of a current car model to get a car that drives without my assistance or attention. Think about how much time you lose in a year to driving. You could be working in the car on the way to the office and counting it as your work time. You could be spending time with your family while you're on the way to see the parents. You could be watching a movie while you're in the middle of a boring ten-hour drive to San Antonio or whatever.
This is a really stupid move on the part of car manufacturers, as it shows them trying to solve customer needs on the path of least resistance. I think they're approaching the problem from the wrong end, though. We have the technology to solve the problem...and with economies 'round the world in the crapper, this would be an *ideal* way to jumpstart the manufacturing sector. Self-driving cars would reduce insurance premiums, make roadways safer, and increase quality of life. How many people do you know that would instantly go out and buy a new car to get this wasted time back? I know I would...
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
Free software at work. Gotta love it. Of course, all my Microsoft software knew it was daylight savings day and readjusted it self automatically. God bless Microsoft! Fuck those free software commie bastards!
While riding my bike I've been nearly hit twice by drivers talking on their cell phones and not concentrating on the road. But now if people use Bluetooth technology to transmit their voice to their cellphones instead of talking directly on the cellphone, I'll be perfectly safe!
What other loopholes will people try to get away with next?
Sorry officer, I didn't mean to go through that intersection and run over that biker, but according to my color sensor that street light had an RGB value of (253, 0, 0) so it wasn't fully red.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
The trouble with cell phone safety is not in the nature of the handset (or hands free set) it is in the conditioned response to phone calls. All this article seems to be pushing is another hands free approach to cell phones. This article http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1885775.stm reports that, "hands-free kits were almost as dangerous as hand-held phones."
n ews/2001/01/25/Consumers/cellphones_study010125 provides this quote on the issue
The point of this article is that, "Reaction and stopping times were much slower Talking on a mobile phone while driving is more dangerous than being over the legal alcohol limit, according to research."
This article http://http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?/
"The bandwidth of the brain is actually quite limited," says Dr. John Vavrick, the research psychologist in charge of the study.
"Time sharing and multi-tasking does not come easily to the human brain."
The study used 41 drivers and gave each a series of tests to perform while answering questions through a speaker in the car.
Researchers found the driver's mental state was equally affected whether he or she was using a hands-free phone or not.
This is just a small sampling of the articles of the danger presented by using a cellphone while driving. The risk just isn't worth it, hang up and drive!.
You think the cop that pulls you over is going to ask whether or not that's a bluetooth phone or not?.. He's just going to hand you a ticket, and send you on your way. And how are you going to prove it was a bluetooth phone in court?
For instance, in most places there are signs (and often laws) forbidding the use of radio transmitters near explosives. If there aren't, it's just common sense. But when a local high school had a bomb threat, all the teachers and reporters were running around the scene talking on their cellphones. A local cop tried to remind them that cellphones *are* radio transmitters, but for the most part the citizenry didn't understand why the rule should apply, because (after all) it's a phone, not a transmitter!
it should just be a crime to drive inattentively or to create diversions for yourself.
In most US states it is a traffic offense to be distracted while driving. So if I have to concentrate on the call I pull over even if I am using a hands free device. If it's my boss, then I can just keep on driving <grin>
Sig is on vacation
So Enter Bluetooth and maybe it gets around the laws, but if you drive distracted you still are violating law.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The distraction of cellphones that causes an increase in accidents has already been exhaustively proven by numerous scientific studies. The British government, obviously out to protect consumers from cellphone companies, thoughtfully outlawed the use of cellphones in cars. Think about the public safety implications: without a law such as this, you may be able to talk on your cellphone while driving, but you can also just be driving along, paying attention when some jackass in a suburban talking to his stock broker runs your ass over after running a red light.
I've seen it happen before, and it ain't pretty. So why do cellphone manufacturers have to constantly try to violate public safety standards?
Software piracy is victimless theft.
ok this is a U.K. law
what the law bans is holding onto a phone and driveing
you CAN use a HANDS FREE kit and drive
now tell me bluetooth does that connect hands free kit to your phone ?
misinformation is what makes the web useless
regards
John jones
ok basically you cant drive while holding onto your phone
simple
you can use handsfree kits to drive and talk and most handsfree kits will start useing bluetooth so this story is totally bogus
the nice thing about bluetooth is that you can have the handfree kit built into the car and all you have to do is carry the phone in the car and it attachs without any wires in a standard way
bogus stroy headline or what
regards
John jones
...when someone is successfully sued for a lot of money for causing an accident while yammering on the g.d. thing.
Using a cell phone while driving is akin to driving shit-faced drunk: there have been several experiments that have shown this.
You drive drunk and cause an accident, your ass is toast.
It won't be long 'til you drive chatting on the phone and cause an accident, your ass is toast.
And IMO, the sooner the better. Endanger yourself if you wish, but leave me out of it!
--
Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Hey, why don't you relax and take a gander at this photo?
That's better now, isn't it?
.
it should just be a crime to drive inattentively or to create diversions for yourself.
In one simple sentence, a slashdotter has managed to unify the complicated laws governing dangerous driving, past present and future. What do you want, put every lawmaker out of a job?
...try this.
Crank up your fave FPS or driving simulator. Get really into it. Mark down how soon you crash/get killed out.
Now call someone and try to have a meaningful talk on the hone with them while playing the same game. Now see how fast you get killed out.
Behind the wheel of your car, there is no "reset".
Is a direct performance comparison between
Drinking & Driving,
Talking & Driving, and
Elderly Driving.
I have no reason to believe that a person headed home after 2-3 beers at the bar is any more dangerous on the road than a guy blabbing on the phone. The main difference is that the drinker gets his face smeared in the dirt when he gets caught. Our society just learns to treat the drinker as the criminal more-so than the equally challenged Elderly driver or cell-phone user. Be honest with yourself. Who's really more dangerous behind the wheel?
In my opinion, what is really needed is some sort of GPS (or simliar) based autopilot feature. This is probably at least 10+ years away, but if used widely, I'd predict to see a 95+ % decrease in Fatalities, lower insurance rates, Reduced Commuting times, less maintainance costs (less stop & go driving), improved fuel economy/costs,
and less stress while traveling. There wouldn't be any reason to prevent people from using Cell phones, watching movies, surfing the web, or even cracking open a beer while traveling.
If everybody had a guidance system (one that communicates with other vehicles), there would no longer be a need for Stop signs, traffic lights, or maybe even street lights. Heck, it might even eliminate the need to own a vehicle - maybe you could "page" a nearby transporter to come pick you up right by the front door - not at the far side of the parking lot.
Somebody work on this. You've got at least one eager customer waiting.
Perhaps this will mean that I will be able to buy a cell phone that can talk to my PDA without needing all the conversion kit wires. That alone would be enough to get me to upgrade my phone itself.
No idea when to expect bluetooth.
Duh, I've no idea when *you* can expect to get it, but I've had my Sony Ericsson T68i phone, hands-free headset and TiBook with Bluetooth D-Link adaptor for a couple of months now.
It all works together perfectly -- until the 3G phones arrive anyway...
it should just be a crime to drive inattentively or to create diversions for yourself.
It is in the UK at least. The offence is called 'Driving without due care and attention'. The laws against cellphones were necessary because it had become common practice before anyone had chance to object, and so the law was necessary to send people a clear message that this wasn't on.
As for the talking to passengers/hands free headsets issue, it's quite possible to hold a conversation when conditions are quiet. Then you would be driving with due care and attention, as long as you stop doing so when driving conditions change. It's all about balance and matching your behaviour to the situation. But fiddling about with a telephone handset is always going to be too great a distraction to be safe.
Some people are empty-headed buffoons (or bimbos) who will just say anything that comes into their head. Most of them can probably carry on a conversation while driving without any lessening of their already minimal driving skills, because they're not really thinking about what they're saying. The rest of us should make driving our first priority. Sure, all of us should, but those people will be bad drivers no matter what, and it'll look better in court if they were talking on the phone and you were just driving and minding your own business. If I'm going to get in an accident, I'd rather it's with a well-insured idiot than anything else.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Talking to somebody is still a distracting activity. The arguement that it's the same as talking to a passenger is flawed because the person on the phone isn't aware of the situation around you. Heck, it can be difficult just trying to talk to somebody walking in a busy place let alone driving a car!
Additionally it doesn't matter if you can get caught or not driving and talking. Fact is if you get into an accident it doesn't matter if you were using a Bluetooth or a hand-free set. If it's against the law where you are you're gonna get busted for it!
So guess what? Obey the law! It's usually in everyone's best interest.
_nfotxn
Cellphones aren't going to leave the car. They are fact of life now, get used to it. The alternative to talking and driving is to attempt to pull over and answer the phone before the other end hangs up. Which one is going to be more dangerous?
It's worse than that. If you're talking to somebody in the same car as you, they can see if you're currently occupied, or if there's something else (like a difficult turn) which should take precedence over the conversation. If you're talking to somebody on a cell phone, though, they can't see this, and will speak to you as if everything's normal. This is even worse on stealing your attention from driving, because you can't easily background the conversation for fear of appearing "rude" to the other person on the line who wouldn't understand the reason for the lull in the conversation.
Because looking at a computer screen while driving is FAR safer than talking on the phone while driving!
A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with. - Tennessee Williams
This is done at a lot of fraternities (with alcohol rather than cell phones) to remind the guys to give their brothers a call at the end of the night.
The new Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan can already be factory-equipped with Bluetooth technology. The system supports hands-free voice control and calling via a Bluetooth headset, as well as wireless dial-up networking functionality using a Bluetooth PDA or laptop.
:-)
The car's internal network uses fiber optics with a signal capacity fifty times greater than conventional wire circuitry.
And btw, with a supercharged 210 HP engine in the Aero version, the car is probably not only fun to play with, but also a great driver
passengers are usually reasonably aware of what is going on on the road and will often stop talking to the driver if they detect danger,
Exactly, when someone stops talking in a car, I always realize that death is coming.
Riiiight. Put down the bong, please. It is effecting your concept of time.
Honestly, the above passage is one of the most flawed and skewed arguments I have heard, and really doesn't reflect the realities of the roadway.
If only those fictional highways that the poster speaks of have that lazy reaction time that the poster wishes. There never would be a major roadway death.
After all, as a news photographer visiting about two major interstate accidents a week, I only see the aftermath. Most people's irresponsibility actually takes out the other guy. It seems in my more than limited experience of seeing roadway deaths that drunk and distracted drivers never kill themselves, they simply bounce off of the other car that they they have now sent into oncoming traffic. Its always the drunk/cellphone talking asshole sitting on the shoulder of the road with a sad face when I drive up.
Let me take off my journalistic hat and say to all of you who drive around with cell phones running that I hate you all. Every last one of you. You are killing others. And it is a collective killing. If you are talking on a cell phone in high traffic you are a party to it. I am not going to mix words here. I am the one shooting the pictures. I see the death. If anyone is a paramedic, please testify to this truth.
Honestly, the worst thing that ever happened with the cell phone in a car thing is that Nikki Taylor didn't die from her stupidity. It became a joke lesson. Nothing learned in the face of the public. She should have died, and there should have been a national campaign. Her beautiful face, and the words, "A cell phone killed her while driving. Think about it."
But no, now were stuck with talking about it. Please. Go right ahead. Coninue killing people. Be my guest.
I am sorry that I am heavy handed, but it is the truth.
hmm so I supposed you're supposed to not talk to your passengers as well.
If you have a good handsfree kit or headset, you fine.
The comparisons to talking on the cell phone while playing video games is silly. Playing video games takes more concentration than driving. If driving were just as intense as playing need for speed 2 you wouldn't have people driving to gameworks or dave and buster.
hmm so I supposed you're supposed to not talk to your passengers as well.
If you have a good handsfree kit or headset, you fine. Unless you sit in the car with your hands at 10 and 2 o'clock, you don't talk to your passeners and you don't touch the radio ever you really can't talk.
There are many things while driving a car that can be distracting from the hotty on the sidewalk, your itchy toe, or talking on having a discussion on your cell phone. Handling this distractions is part of good defensive driving. This is in addition to keeping good stopping distnaces and being aware of your surroundings.
The comparisons to talking on the cell phone while playing video games is silly. Playing video games takes more concentration than driving. If driving were just as intense as playing need for speed 2 you wouldn't have people driving to gameworks or dave and buster.
I guess my point is that it doesn't take a cell phone to make someone a bad driver.
I'm reminded of the signs posted at the front of buses, "Do not speak to the driver while the bus is in motion."
Are laws against cell-phones in cars really so poorly worded that they can easily be gotten around by changing the method by which the signals are transmitted? Somebody needs to get bitchslapped.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
get a mental grip people. you need more than two hands to drive a motor vehicle (ie: extreemly powerful weapon).
The diffrence between passengers and cell phones is the passengers shut up when you drop out of cruse and start driving attentivly.
It's a fairly clear correlation, I wouldn't try refuting it.
Though I won't disagree with "no cell phone can still be bad driver", to say that "a cell phone dosen't reduce one's driving abilities" is a far diffrent claim.
I'm going to play devils advocate here. First off, millions of people use phones on the road without a problem. Second, it's become so engrained, no amount of policing action is going to make much of a difference. I do it, my mom does it, everyone does it. There's a difference between using a phone in 5pm rush hour traffic and at 10pm on a empty freeway. I see cops driving with phones on all the time here.
Given the above, it makes since to find ways to make this a little safer. Yes, you can't navigate a cone course and talk on the phone. I autoslalom and I doubt you could listen to the radio and do that. It makes sense that you might NOT use the phone in those situations, or tell the other party you have to stop talking for a second (or just stop).
Lawmakers can do what they want, it's not going to stop anyone. It would be impossible to tell someone is talking on the phone if they're on handsfree anyhow.
Laws and phones do not make up the primary problem: Lack of driver skill and attention to the road, and bad driving habits. Most people have no idea how to do basic emergency avoidance maneuvers, or drive vehicles which make those maneuvers life threatening or impossible.
..don't panic
The phone must be *fully* hands free to be legal. The proposed law (63Kb PDF) is ruling out handheld phones even with hands-free equipment:
This means at the very least you must have it in a "permanently fixed cradle" and possibly have to switch the "auto answer" feature on - how many people know how to do that, let alone bother to do it every time they get in the car?
That is not to say you will be a safe driver even then - a few years ago a driver reached into their jacket in the passenger seat for a mint and swerved into a lorry which smashed through the central reservation and killed several people. He escaped a prison sentence - but only just.
Gareth
They probably reboot the servers every hour or so into Windows to get real work done, and therefore had a double DST adjustment.
Playing video games takes more concentration than driving
That mindset is why 40,000+ people die every year in the US from car crashes.
It seems like bluetooth is being used to circumvent the intent of a law, which is to ban people from talking on the phone while driving. The protocol used to get the info from your car shouldn't be an issue. If want to ban all cell phones, you should amend the law to include any wireless device for vocal communication. If, on the other hand, you find hands free devices acceptable, you should allow hands free cell phones as well as hands free bluetooth based communications devices.
Vote for Pedro
that is why people turn off the radio when they are trying to concentrate on where they are going. Most people can't multitask that well.
The truth doesn't care what I think.
Believe it or not, there are still real communities in the US, it's not all suburbian wasteland. Of course, even the Chicago suburbs are served by Pace buses and the Metra (commuter rail). Fewer than half of my suburbian friends drive into town, most take the Metra, which is both faster than driving during rush hour and less stressful.
When I go back to my hometown (Springfield IL) to visit my family, which I do about six or seven times a year, I take Amtrak. Yeah, Amtrak is a pain sometimes, they are frequently late (mostly because of freight interference), but it's still a hell of alot better than driving. I usually spend the first hour of the three hour trip sleeping (Amtrak seats are quite comfortable, with alot of leg room), then get out my laptop and do whatever I feel like, maby just play nethack, but usually programming or tweaking the system, or I read or get something to eat in the dining car.
My point is that the whole "The US needs cars" thing is a bunch of bullshit. If this country would properly fund its public transit systems (and quit subsidizing those suburbian SUV drivers), we could have systems every bit as good as those in Europe. If we'd quit zoning to enforce sprawl (minimum setbacks and parking around stores, not allowing stores into residential areas (as an aside, the store from which I buy milk is a two minute walk from my apartment), minimum street width, etc) we could have real, living communities such as which now exist in a few isolated areas of cities like Chicago, New York, and San Francisco.
There's nothing intrisic about this country that says that it has to be an auto-suburbian wasteland, just people like the people in this thread who are too close-minded to think that there might be a better way to live.
Jordan Bettis
``Wherever you go, there's another stupid sigfile quote.''Bluetooth will become the facto standard for telematic onboard solutions. Companies like Daimler Chrysler, Visteon, Johnson Control (working together with IBM & Intel), BMW, Saab, VW, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Nissan, Microsoft (Windows Automatic) etc. are all working on Bluetooth Telematic/Handsfree Solutions. You will see more Bluetooth handsfree solutions, so it would possible to use voice dailing with your mobile pda/smarthphone, ppcphone or normal mobile phone...... "Like DaimlerChrysler, Microsoft believes Bluetooth technology will provide the capabilities that most consumers will want in their vehicles....." see 'Bluetooth Makes Telematics a Reality' http://ragingbull.lycos.com/mboard/boards.cgi?boar d=MSFT&read=113642
Car Industry Drives Bluetooth Into The Mainstream; Wireless Industry Sees In-Car Use as Definitive Application, says TDK Systems
http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=printnew s&doc_id=NR20021022290.2_2eda0009ede1dca0
October 2002 -- Microsoft Windows Automotive will include support for voice recognition and the wireless technology Bluetooth....
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,106190,0 0.asp
Hand-free - Driving within the law? (see slide 17 of 20 and slide 12 of 20): Bluetooth Headsets
http://www.click.co.uk/inc48oct02.pdf
Extremely well documented study about risks of using a mobile phone while driving.
http://www.rospa.com/pdfs/road/mobiles/report.pdf
More Bluetooth info
http://slashdot.org/~angelseye2000/journal
"Even though they can be used 'hands-free' to some extent, these still require the user to hold the phone in order to press buttons or to read a message on the phone's screen." "...to hold"? So am "holding" my radio 2? It's just a matter of time when Bluetooth will make it to 100% HANDSFREE. Companies already working on that.... UK likely to ban mobile phones in cars http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27808.html
The writer should have done his dd on Bluetooth and it's functions.
-The article is restricted to the UK only.
-"Even though they can be used 'hands-free' to some extent, these still require the user to hold the phone in order to press buttons [not necessarily] or to read a message on the phone's screen."... to hold the phone????? lol.
-"This doesn't altogether rule out Bluetooth, but does kind of undermine its point - if you've got to have the phone plugged into the car, running through the car's speakers, then what are you going to use wireless for?" ...."plugged into the car" threw Bluetooth, Bluetooth could also be used for speakers etc.
-"The document seems not to specifically outlaw a Bluetooth headset when used with one of its approved in-vehicle systems...."...EXACTLY.
A step further would be that people should not use there Radio in there car. How about that UK goverment? Can we talk we eachother in the car!?.....
Good luck UK.
There is an update to the earlier article that kicked of this discussion at The Register which I think shows just how confused, and confusing, British law is at the moment regarding the use of mobile phones while driving. If the article is correct it doesn't look like its going to get any better either.
--
Steve Brammer
(From U.K. but currently residing in Västerås, Sweden)
Whilst driving and talking on your cell phone simultaneously, you get into a situation that requires a small fraction of the amount of attention required to play an FPS. Say "Hold on a minute" to the person on the phone. They're usually very accomodating.
Sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine, anyway. -Bob Lehmann
Now call someone and try to have a meaningful talk on the hone with them while playing the same game. Now see how fast you get killed out.
:)
My experience is that there is absolutely no significant difference between playing with all my atttention on the game and playing while talking on the phone, I always get creamed in less than 5 seconds*
*The time to bump into someone else.
"The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
Never understood why do we have to ban cell phone while driving. Before you said "you stupid idot" and all that comments, let me make a point that why don't we ban people eating while driving, isn't it as distracting? There are other things that people do while their driving, beside keeping their eyes on the road. Why should we single out cell phone use?
Various documentation updates and bugfixes (the best way to know that a
stable kernel is approaching is to notice that somebody starts to
spellcheck the kernel - it has so far never failed)
-- Linus Torvalds in the annoucement for pre-2.1.99-3
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...