California Bans Front-Seat Computer Use

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California Bans Front-Seat Computer Use

Posted by timothy on Friday January 2, 2004 @01:55AM from the law-is-an-ass dept.

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.

15 of 804 comments (clear)

it's about time some one did this by unclefungus · 2004-01-02 02:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

I almost wrecked into a guy with an LCD screen mounted in his passenger seat. some things are not meant to do while driving. If you "think" you can do it while you drive, then you should pull the car over.
1. Re:it's about time some one did this by akedia · 2004-01-02 02:22 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I sure hope you never drive around where I live, lest you get distracted while you are reading and driving and crash into me. Can you say 'lawsuit'?
  
  Driving is NOT a simple mental process. If it was, don't you think we would have built a robotic system based on a series of simple algorithms to do the driving for us? (Yes I know the military has a few prototypes but that's not my point.) Driving is the process of several visual, audible, and physical processes. You have to be able to see down the road and around your car, you need to hear other drivers' warning and emergency vehicles, and you need to be able to properly physically operate all the controls of your car. In addition, there are many other variables to account for. Weather conditions, traffic conditions, other drivers, animals, children, police and other emergency vehicles, and there are NUMEROUS others. By reading your book, or yapping on your phone, or poking at your laptop, you are taking mental ability AWAY, for whatever duration and capacity, from a particular task for driving. Operating a vehicle SAFELY requires most, if not all of your attention span, and skills that are only acquired with years of experience.
  
  By the way, does anyone here live in the DC Metro area? I moved here from the Philadelphia area a few months ago and the FUCKERS AROUND HERE CANNOT DRIVE! Good Lord, people, get off your phones while you're driving your minivans full of nine kids! Only in northern Virginia do I have to watch the traffic IN FRONT OF ME while I do a high-speed merge onto the Beltway! JESUS, people, find a hole and stick yourself in it! OK I'm done.
2. Re:it's about time some one did this by Creep73 · 2004-01-02 02:44 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  considering the fact that driving is a rather simple mental process
  
  Not if you are doing everything correctly. Your eyes should be moving about identifying possible problems and you should be constantly working out how you would handle those problems. You should be glancing at mirrors to identify traffic and keeping track of people around you.
  
  Putting your foot on the gas and keeping between the lines is driving but it isn't proper driving (as I have learned it).
  
  I see horrible drivers daily and they are horrible because they are self-centered and they believe that driving is simple.
  
  I do not ask that everyone take driving as seriously as I do. I rarely play music in my car because I think it is a distraction. I do however feel that you should respect the fact that if you don't pay attention and identify those hazards that are on the road you and your family have a much greater possibility of getting harmed by those hazards. Yes in most cases an individual driving mindlessly down the road doesn't cause allot of problems but we do not normally have an individual doing that. We have a large group of people driving mindlessly and that causes accidents daily.
  
  With that said, I believe that this law goes overboard. Laptops and such are valuable if properly used. The problem they are trying to prevent is the inevitable misuse due to people thinking they can do multiple things at once because driving is simple.
  
  And yes books and newspapers should not be read during your morning commute into work unless you take a plane or train.
3. Re:it's about time some one did this by bwalling · 2004-01-02 03:12 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Some of us have the ability to do two things at once, considering the fact that driving is a rather simple mental process, books should be outlawed too if laptops are, I see lots of people reading books on the road, and it takes more concentration for me to read in my car than glance over at mapquest on laptop.
  
  The reason that certain distractions are being outlawed is that they avert your eyes from the road. It's not about mental complexity, it's about constant monitoring. When you are using a laptop or television, your eyes are not on the road. When the car in front of you hits his brakes or the car next to you cuts you off or the car on the side road pulls out in front of you or the deer runs in front of you or the cargo falls off the truck in front of you or the car in front of you blows out a tire, you need to be watching the road instead of looking at porn.
  
  Maybe you're only 16 and haven't been driving long or maybe you live in an area with no other cars, but you need to recognize the fact that your driving environment can instantly and dramatically change. It doesn't take a smart person to avoid an accident, it takes someone who is paying attention. It's not myslef that I worry about while driving - it's all of the other people (and things - deer are pretty stupid).
4. Re:it's about time some one did this by fitten · 2004-01-02 03:29 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Some people really CAN drive while on a cell phone. If you can't, you should be responsible enough to refrain.
  
  This is exactly the point. Very few people will honestly admit to themselves that they can't - especially when they see other people doing it. This would be an honest admission that they are somehow inferior to others, which is a difficult thing for many people to do. The vast majority of people think that they can, even despite evidence to the contrary. I know plenty of people who think they are the best drivers on the road even though many of their friends are nervous about riding in a vehicle they are driving.
  
  In the end, what you have is almost everyone driving and doing these things and being a hazard on the road. The only fair way to do this, to many folks, is to universally ban it. If you start making tests to allow some and not others, you will get lawsuits of descrimination, racial profiling, and all of those similar garbage things.
  
  Not only that, but how would you enforce the law? Stop everyone and see if they are allowed? or simply not stop anyone for it unless there is another reason (speeding/wreck/suspicion of chemical influence/etc).
5. Re:it's about time some one did this by GoofyBoy · 2004-01-02 03:38 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  >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.
6. Re:it's about time some one did this by DaveOke · 2004-01-02 04:13 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  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.
Re:Laptops while driving by Darth23 · 2004-01-02 02:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

I've seen people reading the newspaper while driving. The idea of having someone driving while working on a laptop is MUCH more frightening that the ida of someone driving while a passenger dows the same thing. Plus, everyone knows that when someone in on the computer is dead tot he outside world. Ever try to talk to someone who's surfing the web? Passengers with laptops would probably be LESS distracting to drivers than passengers WITHOUT laptops.

--
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
So what? by cnelzie · 2004-01-02 02:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

Really, what's the huge deal? The driver's job is to keep the vehicle on the road and going from point A to point B as safely as possible.

I have seen some real morons driving around the state I live in, fiddling with their cell phone, playing with the radio and many other things. I have also witnessed a number of accidents because some nut was to busy doing everything else instead of driving their car.

I say kudos to legislation that will force drivers to drive, instead of fiddling with all of their electronic gadgets. I am also a little guilty of that myself, I have a cell phone and I really should be using one of those hands free devices and I do intend on getting one.

--
If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
1. Re:So what? by EasyTarget · 2004-01-02 02:27 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  String them up I say.. I got sideswiped off my bike last week in Amsterdam by some total dork watching hardcore rap video's in his little toy BMW, via a front mount DVD player. THere are a lot of total twats doing that in this town.
  Mostly my pride injured but I was not amused.
  
  Watching anything other than the road is just an idiotic thing to do. Full stop. End of discusion. If you think you can drive and also focus on a VDU then you're an arrogant twat who puts your own pleasure before the safety of others.
  
  --
  "Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
2. Re:So what? by Lord+of+Ironhand · 2004-01-02 04:05 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Then again, with your username, who can blame him...
Nav systems are OK by G4from128k · 2004-01-02 02:04 · Score: 5, Informative

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.
Re:What about passengers? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-01-02 02:12 · Score: 5, Funny

Why shouldn't I be allowed to have my wife, sitting passenger side, connect to MapQuest to help me with driving directions?

Because that's the male code:

Rule 387: Never admit to your wife that you are lost or need directions. You know exactly where you are, and even if it does not appear that you are going anywhere useful, you are certain that you haven't passed that building twice already.
Re:Police by ChipMonk · 2004-01-02 02:18 · Score: 5, Interesting

Before anyone mods me, I did RTFA.

Since when do we simply assume that cops are better drivers than other people? The only point I'll concede to that is that they are trained to handle higher speeds. That doesn't automatically mean that they can still handle their front-seat gadgets better. If anything, driving at normal highway speeds can lull a trained person into a false sense of "normalcy".

In any case, I'm not buying the notion that cops are any better at typing while driving than the rest of us. If anything, because they are vested with more power than Average Joe, they should be distrusted more.
What about the police? by ruiner13 · 2004-01-02 02:27 · Score: 5, Insightful

I assume law enforcement is exempt from this? Have you seen lately all the computer equipment in the front seat of a police car, aimed directly at the officer driving? Doesn't seem fair that they are allowed to use that stuff and the average joe isn't. Most of the time around here, I see the police driving far worse than anyone else on the road.

--
today is spelling optional day.