Software Holds Cell Phone Calls While Driving

An anonymous reader writes "Canadian company Aegis Mobility has developed software that detects if a cell phone is moving at 'car' speeds. If so, the software, DriveAssistT, will alert the cellular network, telling it to hold calls and text messages until the drive is over. Calls are not blocked entirely; callers will be notified that the person appears to be driving, but they can still leave an emergency voice mail, which will be sent through immediately."

Comments

This is different from the OFF button how?

[kpainter]

Seems like exactly the same as turning the phone off. I smell a patent!

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[AuMatar]

So its just like ignoring the god damn call until you're off the road.

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[welcher]

except that you don't need to employ willpower to avoid the temptation to see who's calling

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[Artifakt]

I really think you're oversimplifying to make your point. For one, it answers the call. Instead of somebody calling and thinking that you may just be out of coverage or you forgot to turn your ringer back on, they get told what the situation really is. If they are a friend or relative, they probably know you well enough to estimate when to try again. Of course, you may not want just anyone to know even that much about you, you may not have a parent or child who worries if they just don't get an answer, etc. But for people with a minor child, or a mother who can get a bit irrationally worried if they can't get in touch, or a job which requires them to respond, within reason, if the office calls, this could be very useful.

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[WK2]

FSM forbid that driving might require self-control.

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm ... What is my gf is on the phone while I am driving ...

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[shmlco]

"Some people can actually drive and talk on a phone at the same time...."

And some people (the same set, actually) only think they can.

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[BitZtream]

People who freak out because some doesn't answer their cell phone instantly have deeper issues that aren't going to be solved by an automated message from a machine.

In reality they need to seek professional help for their disorder, or at the very least remind them that our species survived just fine 15 years ago before everyone had cell phones.

I have inlaws like this, it's taken me several years of aggressivly not answering them to just get them to recognize that not answering the phone doesn't imply anything other than you didn't answer the phone.

Re:This is different from the OFF button how?

[Shakrai]

I guess her civil right, as guaranteed in the constitution, to talk on a cell phone while in a moving vehicle, has been abrogated.

You are looking at it the wrong way. What in the Constitution would give the Government the power to regulate where and when I can use my cell phone?

Its a good thing that passengers never make calls

[hugzz]

Per subject..

This is brilliant

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody rides a train at car speeds, am I right?

Re:Well this is stupid if you don't RTFA

[1u3hr]

I don't think they thought this through at all.

Of course they have. You can TURN IT OFF if you're a passenger.

RTFA FFS.

Stop trying.

[MasaMuneCyrus]

Nearly every time I see someone driving outlandishly stupid on the road, they're using a cell phone. However, there are more stupid things that you can do while driving that are more distracting than a cell phone: changing the radio, eating, drinking, looking for something, reading directions. None of these things are illegal, merely discouraged.

Outlawing cell phone use while driving is futile; there are always ways to get around it, e.g., hands-free links. If there is no way to enforce a law, it shouldn't be a law in the first place.

I think if we stopped trying to ban it and merely strongly recommended not using cell phones while driving, we would see an effective drop in the number of people using cell phones while driving. Seat belts, for instance, weren't enforced until this past decade (at least in my state). However, advertising, education, and signs asking you to buckle up made it so the vast majority did buckle up. Was it illegal to drive without a seat belt on? No. Was it safe? Yes, so most people did it. Why can't we approach the cellphone problem like we approached the seat belt problem? Why are we so gungho about laws and declaring everything unsatisfactory illegal nowadays?

Re:Well this is stupid if you don't RTFA

[jamesh]

what's to stop me from turning it off AS THE DRIVER also?

That's a bit of an uninformed conclusion. Just because you can imagine a bunch of cases where such a feature is not a good idea, doesn't mean that there aren't cases where it would solve a lot of problems. If your job involved lots of short drives between destinations then it could be really useful. As soon as you start moving your phone won't interrupt you, as soon as you stop it lets you know about the calls you missed, and in the meantime it let the people trying to contact you know what's going on.

If you took your blinkers off you might realize that this is a feature that will be useful for some people, who will purchase it, and not so much for others, who won't purchase it. It's not a hard thing to get your hear around if you try. Nobodies going to purchase it and then try and figure out a way of defeating it.

If Slashdot was a crowded room, and someone were to come into the room and ask "Who owns the red car parked out the front", the answer "oh yeah, that's mine" would be lost amongst the noise of everyone else replying "It's not mine. I can't imagine why you'd think it was mine. How dare you suggest that I left a red car parked out the front".