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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."
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.
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.
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.
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!.