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California Bans Front-Seat Computer Use
An anonymous reader submits "As of January 1, 2004 the State of California has banned the use of notebook computers used anywhere in the front seat (PDF) of a moving vehicle. Previously, the ban applied just to TV sets. Even if your car-pooling front seat passenger is just doing some programming, you can be charged with a crime (AB 301). Thanks go to CA Assemblymember Sarah Reyes for this well meaning but overly broad piece of legislation." The text is mercifully short, but still contains some tricky language; probably the meaning of "installed" at the very least needs to be clarified. Would a laptop affixed to a installed bracket count? Considering the complexity of modern automotive navigation/control systems (now sneaking into budget vehicles, too), it seems like a very fine distinction. The law would seem to ban handheld computers being used as navigation aids, too, or GPS devices with games, and very soon, nearly all cell phones.
The second page of the PDF clearly exempts navigation systems from the ban (it also exempts veiw-enhancing monitors like rear-veiw TVs). What it does not exempt are those ever-enlarging screens for audio systems.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
>It has nothing to do with driving being a complex or a simple thing. Some people have the ability to context-switch quickly.
Travelling at 55 miles per hour, in one second you have travelled 80 feet.
Even with perfect context-switching, thats a large enough distance for lots to happen.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
How many of you people actually read the PDF file? The ignorance posted on the front page is skewed of to what is the law.
It clearly states if the screen is used for
1) vechile info display
2) a GPS display
3) a MAPPING DISPLAY
4) display used to enhance driving
5) any display (television, monitor, computer) that is when the vechile is in motion, the display can be only used for the purposes of 1-4.
Maybe some people should read everything before basing their judgement on ignorant (get-your-attention) slashdot articles.