FCC/DOT Want High-Tech Cure For Distracted Driving

coondoggie writes "The Federal Communications Commission and the US Department of Transportation are teaming up to develop what they called high-tech solutions to the growing problem of distracted or inattentive drivers. The DOT and FCC said they will set up a working group to evaluate technology-based answers to the distracted driving problem and will improve outreach efforts to educate the public about the dangers of texting while driving, talking on cell phones while driving, and other distracting behavior that can lead to deadly accidents, the agencies stated." Meanwhile, Korea has overturned a ban on dashboard TV-watching for taxi drivers.

Comments

Here's the cure

[camperdave]

You want a high tech cure for distracted driving? Easy. Get rid of the driver.

Re:Here's the cure

[Beardo the Bearded]

Here is a two-step solution to fix distracted driving:

1. Remove the airbag from the driver's seat.

2. Replace it with a bayonet.

They'll pay attention now.

Re:Here's the cure

[MBGMorden]

Are you kidding? About the only people I've found who LIKE to drive are teenagers for 3 weeks after they get their license and motorheads who make up 0.5% of the population. Everyone else likes to go places, but not to DRIVE.

If I could honestly just kick back with my laptop while my car drove me to work (or even better - on long trips - imagine just taking a nap in the back seat rather than stopping at a hotel for the night) then I'd be absolutely overjoyed.

I wouldn't call one of the biggest leaps on convenience in the last 200 years "another step towards becoming a nanny state".

Re:Here's the cure

[Ethanol-fueled]

Factories. 12-hour shifts will solve the child obesity problem and keep them the hell out of my bread-line.

Hell, there should be a moratorium on having children, period. The asshole yuppie offspring of baby boomers (who are causing all of the world's problems and should just die anyway) are the ones creating fat, spoiled, apathetic little piggies raised in sterile environments. Those offspring should be stuffed in cattle cars and railroaded off to the maquiladoras regardless of the parents' ability to afford school, actually...

...if the motherfuckers endure a little hardship and learn to work for their things then we wouldn't have affluent little cocksuckers destroying the economy because they grew up with mommy and daddy paying for everything they break.

Re:Here's the cure

[TooMuchToDo]

My argument is that if you want to have children, you should have to shoulder more of the cost to have them. You get federal and state tax deductions for having children, the ability to get pre-tax money out of your paycheck to pay for their daycare, very close to zero cost primary education (where I live in Illinois, you pay about $150/year to send your child to school), and that's just to start.

I want to live in an educated society that promotes personal responsibility. That doesn't mean couples with children should get to freeload on everyone else's hard work. Be prepared to shoulder the costs you've incurred by the decisions you've made, or don't make the decision. It's that simple. Anything else is whining.

Dashboard Cam

[CorporateSuit]

How about a dashboard cam that simply sends the person a text if it sees them looking down at their phone while driving?

"Car ahead; 10 feet; brace for impact, retard."

Re:Dashboard Cam

[jo42]

And connected to a robotic arm that would smack the driver in the back of the head first.

Watched some dumb bitch run a red light while flapping her stupid mouth on a cell phone yesterday.

Re:Dashboard Cam

[natehoy]

We've got those in Maine, they're called "rumble strips" and they are a grooved strip of pavement that runs just outside the white lines on either side of the pavement. Maine did a BIG push for them a number of years back when a Wal-Mart truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and wiped out a car in the breakdown lane full of teenagers and a couple of good samaritans who had stopped to help them change their flat tire.

And, man, you drive out of your lane and onto one of those things, you KNOW IT. The vibrations feel like an electric shock in the arse.

Now they just need to put those along more roads and in the median.

Not a perfect solution, but it does at least help people stay where they belong in the lane.

Re:Dashboard Cam

[pwnies]

These have actually saved me a few times. I get very lethargic while driving - never knew why. It doesn't have anything to do with me being tired/well rested, I simply get tired while in a car. I've fallen asleep once while on the freeway. Woke up to the rumble strips, would probably be dead if they weren't there.

Korean taxi drivers are insane

[Shane112358]

After living in Korea for a year, and seeing some of the crap that Korean taxi drivers pull (including trying to beat up Western women for apparently no reason, running their hands through my leg hair, and various other strange antics)...I am convinced that Korean taxi drivers are clinically demented and all possible technological solutions should be employed to distract them at all times. Therefore, I fully support the recent move to overturn the taxi TV ban.

Drive, damn you. Drive!

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

I am, after 2 years, still recovering form the injuries sustained by a person in a large SUV talking on their cell phone who slammed right into the back of my car. I will probably feel pain in my left shoulder for the rest of my life. I would like to ask everyone to put down their phones and drive their damn cars!

A high tech solution to keep my wife quiet??!!

[DrPeper]

I've asked repeatedly, as politely as I can, for my wife (and kids) to be quiet and not distract me while driving. But so far my efforts have been completely in vane. Now if the government can come up with a high tech solution to keep them quiet while I'm driving, then perhaps my tax dollars are not a complete waste of money.

Re:A high tech solution to keep my wife quiet??!!

[SnarfQuest]

It would be simple to create a device to handle half of the work parents do while driving, Most of it is available in greeting cards. A simple device that can be set up behind the drivers seat that automatacally says "No, we're not there yet", "Quit kicking the back of my seat", "Stop touching your sister", "Should I turn this car around", "There's an empty soda bottle back there, use that".

Is it even necessary?

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

Has there been a statistically significant increase in accidents caused by distracted driving?
By significant I mean real - not just the result of changing the way accidents are reported.

If not, then this just sounds like bandwagon-jumping.

Re:How about a special license and exam?

[Yvan256]

There are people who think they can talk and drive/fly at the same time and do it safely.

Those are even more dangerous.

Re:Simple

[mea37]

You don't need a cell signal to drive distracted. Ever seen someone applying makeup while driving? Eating while driving? Facing the back seat (presumably trying to control children) while driving?

These behaviors are all dangerous to bystanders, and in any are with decent distracted driving laws they are all illegal; but those laws are almost never enforced, presumably because they aren't the big money-maker that speeding tickets are.

Also, while you can block radio signals into and out of a car - and indeed there are those who think certain window tinting requirements in CA might inadvertantly have that effect - this will probably only create a market for external antenna kits.

The only real solution to distracted driving is education. Drivers need to understand that as common-place as driving has become, that doesn't make it any less necessary to respect "safe control of the vehicle" as the first and over-riding responsiblity of anyone operating a vehicle.

Re:How about a special license and exam?

[ColdWetDog]

Ah yes, the "I can do this even if you can't" argument. Just like the "I can drink and drive, really I can".

This argument inevitably fails over time. Yes, you can text (or drink or watch TV or $random_distraction) most of the time. After all, look at all the idiots doing so each and every day. You don't always get into to trouble but clearly your risk of plowing into my ass increases with every stupid decision you make. As dose my risk of getting clobbered. Sooner or later, statistics wins.

Get over it. You're a number, just one point in the graph. And I want each and every one of you tiny little points focusing on driving. Tweet later.

Re:Simple

[Chris Mattern]

The only real solution to distracted driving is education. Drivers need to understand that as common-place as driving has become, that doesn't make it any less necessary to respect "safe control of the vehicle" as the first and over-riding responsiblity of anyone operating a vehicle.

The problem is, that's a solution that doesn't work. Case in point: every time something related to this subject comes up, we get the mandated number of posts from people who say, "Yeah, some people may not be able to drive while talking on the phone/eating a pizza/doing their taxes, but I'm really good, and I don't have any trouble doing it and staying in complete control of my car." *All* of these morons will hear the education and say, "Yeah, but I'm an exception."

Re:Why bother?

[Zumbs]

A quick check shows that highway fatality rate in the USA in 2008 was at its lowest level since they started keeping records

How about the accident rate? I'm asking because improved protection of drivers and passengers is likely to reduce the fatality rate ;-)

Re:Why bother?

[DerekLyons]

So, what exactly is the problem they're trying to solve?

It never occurred to you that just because nobody died in the accident that doesn't mean there weren't other consequences?

Yes, it is.

[silanea]

Yes, it is.