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The Case For a Safer Smartphone
itwbennett writes: "According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, people who text and drive increase their chances of 'safety-critical events' by a multiple of 23.2. And new research is constantly rolling out, showing the same thing: 'We can't handle the visual, manual, and cognitive commitment of using a phone while driving,' writes blogger Kevin Purdy. What's needed, Purdy suggests, isn't more laws that will go ignored, but phones that know enough to stop giving us the distractions we ask them for: 'I think the next good phone, the next phone that makes some variant of the claim that it "Fits the way you live," needs to know that we don't know what is good for us when it comes to driving. We want to be entertained and shown new things while doing the often mundane or stressful task of driving. More specifically, those phones should know when we are driving, quiet or otherwise obscure updates from most apps, and be able to offer their most basic functions without needing to turn on a screen or type a single letter.'"
but that would be too much to ask.
...you can learn to put a fucking cell phone down.
We don't need smarter apps to tell us to ignore a phone while driving.
We don't need smarter six-packs. Or smarter makeup. Or smarter food containers. All of these things should not be mixed while steering a ton of steel down the freeway.
We we need are smarter drivers on the road who fucking know better.
And I agree. We don't need more laws. What we need is more real consequences like jail time for offenders so that they may wise up. Clearly current methods are not working, and Darwin award winners in this case take innocent lives with them.
Until someone can explain to me how the number of accidents per million miles travelled has steadily declined for almost two decades, yet cellphones are supposedly causing people to drive like they're intoxicated or worse, I won't put much stock in these "safety-critical events" claims.
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Why do we keep trying to solve this problem with technology? Until technology exists that only affects the driver, but not any of the passengers, this attempt is useless...And if this is advertised as a "feature" of the phone, it will be turned off. Sure, it might be nice, and might even save lives, but no one is going to put their phone down.
How are these going to differentiate between drivers and passengers? And if, as many studies are finding, even talking hands free involves the same risk as texting/etc, does that mean all phone usage would have to be turned off? How about using cell phones as GPS nav devices, something I do often myself, are actual GPS systems somehow magically less distracting? Do we ban all screens in the driver's view, including radios, nav devices, and the instrument panel? I find passengers distracting sometimes, how do they impact accident rates? Or is this getting a bit ridiculous... - HEX
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When I go feature shopping for a new phone, automatically preventing me from doing shit is not going to be high on the list.
needs to know that we don't know what is good for us when it comes to driving
A) How does it know if you are a passenger or not.
B) Phones that don't do what we want when we want are considered "broken" by most people, not "helpful".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The main problem is that we are human being, that we are *NOT* robot.
As human beings we are the product of millions of years of evolution - an evolution that did not encounter _any_ form of electronic gadgets until very recently.
The fact that we can drive a car (or any vehicles) is not because we *adapt* to the way the car operate, but it is another way around.
We engineer the vehicles so that they can become our tool, and the operation of that tool is *within* our range of capability.
While using cellphone (and now smartphone) have been accused of causing a lot of accidents, they are not the only distraction. Long before the advent of the cellphone, a lot of traffic accidents were caused by drivers adjusting their radio (either looking for station of turning up/down the volume), or adjusting the seat, or the air condition, or whatever.
It is thus evidenced that we human beings are not made to be effective "multi-tasking" device
And smartphones are not the only culprit - I have known drivers who were so distracted by their on-board sat nav devices such as tomtom (and other brands) they drove their car into poles, walls, and so on
Personally when I drive, I drive. If I have to adjust my seat, my mirrors, my radio, or whatever, I stop my car at the roadside (or any other safe place) to make the adjustment, and then continue my journey.
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People need to stop distracting themselves while driving. Better yet, make sure that anyone who causes damage, injury, or deaths due to their negligence while driving is fully prosecuted under the law. It's no different than driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Driving a vehicle requires responsibility as a driver.
Let's not kid ourselves. People will just root their phones and bypass any restrictions put in place to block access to the phone while driving. And how the hell would a phone know the difference between a passenger sitting in a car and a driver?
At it's heart, this really isn't a technology problem, but a societal one. We need to crack down on this sort of stuff, so people understand that it's simply not worth the risk to break the law. It would be awesome if software or hardware could fix all those meatware-related problems, but that's not the world we live in.
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Here's the problem: we've tried to make people into better drivers since the automobile was invented. It hasn't worked. You can't change human nature.
People still drive drunk, they still drive distracted. The main reason fatalities have dropped is only because cars are safer.
We don't need smarter drivers. We need smarter cars ... or specifically, self-driving cars. Take the human entirely out of the equation, and only then will you see a real difference.
We'll have self-driving cars on the road long before anyone invents a smartphone that "knows what's good for you". And when that happens, the problem of distracted driving will become completely moot.
How would the phone differentiate between the driver and passengers? How about passengers on a train? I can't see how this would work without causing a huge swath of collateral damage.
Have a small amount of C-4 explosive in the phone. If the phone is switched on when the velocity is greater than 30 mph *BOOM*.
And instead of airbags, we should also have daggers sticking out of our steering wheels, poised directly at our hearts. That way people will only be able to drive like assholes once.
Darwinian evolution is our friend. Let's use it!
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One way would be turn on the phone's front camera when driving speeds are detected and use facial recognition algorithms to detect when the person is driving...for example one way would be to require the person to stare at the phone for a minimum amount of time...and also keep looking at the phone. Another method would be to require two-handed dexterity tests that can't be done while driving. I realize all of these might actually increase the risk from die-hard driving texters since it would distract them even more.
AT&T Drive Mode
Motorola Assist
Apps like these seem to do most everything the blogger is looking for:
It hasn't worked..
This is complete bullshit. Driving has been getting safer for 40 years and the trend is even longer and more obvious if you report fatalities per mile driven.
People still drive drunk
Drunk driving is down, even if you use the inflated "alcohol related" numbers.
seriously, this redirecting to BETA even after I type in www instead is getting REALLY FUCKING OLD.
I don't buy this "it's just human nature" argument.
The prevalence of cell phone use while driving is much greater than that of driving drunk. It is not because it is less of a "human nature". It is because there are stronger deterrents.
If people faced similar penalties to those of DUI (jail time, loss of driving privileges for extended periods of time, etc) for having their hands on the phone while driving, you can bet "human nature" would change accordingly.
Speaking of the radio... I am so annoyed by these new radios with all the menus and crap.
I grew up with an old car radio that had two knobs, the one on the left was which station, the one on the right was how loud, and it had five in-out sliding thingies under the dial. If you found a station you liked, you picked one of the five little thingies and pulled it out, then pushed it back in. From then on, whenever you pushed on that thingie, it would set the dial to the same place it was when you pulled it out, and would do so until you put the dial somewhere else and pulled it out; then it would go to that somewhere else.
It was so damned simple and intuitive you did not have to even think much about it, much less look at it, to adjust it properly.
It required about as much attention as getting a fly off your nose.
These new radios are a real pain in the ass to mess with when I am trying to drive. I really miss my old radio.
Here's the problem: we've tried to make people into better drivers since the automobile was invented. It hasn't worked. You can't change human nature.
Yes you can, you just need to be tougher.
Start putting people in prison for a couple of weeks if you catch them texting/driving. No arguments, mandatory sentence for anybody caught red-handed. The word will soon go around.
Jail time doesn't dissuade gang-bangers (a lot of them enjoy being in prison) but it sure as hell dissuades normal people.
Or, send them to morgues...to look at some people who texted/drove. They need to know that it *does* have consequences.
No sig today...
We need enforcement of current laws. I have never, never, seen anyone pulled over for talking or texting on the phone. Let alone charged for it.
You need to go to Germany. The Autobahns are full of police cars. You can drive at any speed you like. Burn past one at 200mph? No problem.
Tailgate? Flash lights at people? Drive like a moron in any way and they'll be down on you like a ton of bricks.
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Aviation human-factors people call this the "head-down time" problem - pilot looking at panel for too long. Big efforts are made to minimize head-down time during takeoff, approach, and landing. In combat aircraft, huge efforts are made to eliminate it outright, with heads-up displays and all essential controls needed during combat on throttle and stick. Pilot training emphasizes these issues.
Car UI people are just starting to get a clue about this. Early car interfaces were just awful. BMW's original iDrive is considered a classic example of how not to do it. There have some better interfaces since, but the tendency to emulate phones and do everything through a touchscreen is a step backwards.
Phone people have no clue at all. They assume they own the user's attention.
The ultimate fix isn't more jail time [1], because you can toss a ton of people in jail, and there is a drunk texter right behind them. The ultimate fix is going to be autopiloted cars.
[1]: Well, unless you are a Corrections Corporations of America stockholder which is enjoying a stock rise that is actually better than Apple, percentage-wise.
911 Operator: "911. What's your emergency?"
Sobbing voice: "I just can't take it anymore. I need someone to talk to."
911 Operator: "That's OK ma'am. I'm here to talk to you. What's your location?"
Simpering voice: "I'm stuck in traffic on the intersate. It seems like hours since I talked to anyone and my phone won't let me call anyone but you."
911 Operator: "You'll be fine ma'am. We're trained to deal with cell phone withdrawl victims. A nice highway patrol officer is on his way to talk to you in person. How long have it been since you made a phone call ma'am?"
Anguished response: "I don't know. I left the office at 5:00 and talked to BFF until I got in my car but the phone dropped the call as soon as I started the engine. What time is it now?"
911 Operator: "It's now 5:15 you poor dear. You've been without cell phone contact for at least 10 minutes. I'll send the paramedics as well as the highway patrol."
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
We need to teach rational thinking in school. Stop indoctrinating passive consumers and start training people to THINK about their environment. Of course then people would start questioning those in power, and that isn't wanted.
You mean something like this ?
Or we could cut off their hands! That would work, right? ...mandatory sentences, my ass. Haven't we had enough of "zero tolerance" rules already? They're much worse than the problems they purport to solve.
The problem lies, in part, with what I guess you could call the aesthetic of multitasking. We love to think that we're good at it, but -- as research has proven over and over [warning: first link is a pdf download] -- we are actually really shitty at it. The same is true of driving. I remember as a kid riding in my dad's car, how he would try to change the channel on the radio, or do something with the A/C, and immediately start veering the car off the road. At stoplights, the minute he stopped thinking about it, his foot came off the brake and the car would roll out into the intersection.
I don't think fixing cars or cell phones is going to get to the root of the problem. The root is that people think they can do more than one thing at a time and not trip over their own damn feet. Since changing the culture seems out of the question, no amount of technological fixes is going to save us from trying to do more than we're cognitively equipped to do.
Isn't flash-to-pass what they do in every civilized nation?
Nope, that would be coercion ("Nötigung").
We need cars to have safe places to hold the cell phone, possibly tied to the car's audio. While many modern cars have a USB connection to the car stereo and for recharging a cell phone, there is no safe place to deposit your cell phone so it can continue to give directions or be voice controlled. The result is a mad scramble to put your phone down somewhere in the right orientation so it will continue to give good directions. Or worse, flailing around to run your finger across the "accept this call" slider without crashing the car. That part is not helped by voice->text systems, or an ear bud.
When I had a T-Mobile G1 phone with the lovely five-row hardware keyboard AND prior to "no texting and driving" laws going into place, I could cruise down a highway with low to moderate traffic, texting away for the entire ride, and still watch everything going on around me. I did this regularly. I could see every brake light and every erratic movement. I could also easily drop my phone and jerk the wheel if someone nearby got way too unstable. I'd hold the phone at the top of the wheel with both hands on the wheel and the phone at the same time, and my field of view included both the tiny phone screen and the massive windshield.
Hardware keyboards made this relatively safe, as I could type text very accurately without looking except to check periodically. No five-second distractions. On-screen keyboards ruined this; now I have to deal with an inaccurate touchscreen and pray that my auto-correction works properly (and that I didn't hit a letter that auto-corrected to the wrong word!) Texting while driving became a traffic ticket, on top of the demise of the hardware keyboard. Now I can't text at all; it's not safe because I'd have to hide it and on-screen keyboards are difficult to use without a great deal of focus.
People don't stop texting while driving when it's illegal. They get smart and do the texting well out of view of an officer, which means you have the long distraction of on-screen keyboards and looking far away from your driving environment to read and write combined. The perfect storm of texting while driving, and it's the drive for thin phones and banning texting while driving that caused it. Then cops do this shit which illustrates the utter ridiculousness of the situation. If you have to buy big pimpin' SUVs to catch people texting while driving, maybe you should consider whether you're attacking the root of the problem or just one of the symptoms.
You can't stop people from texting while driving, so my solution is as follows. Drivers would need to not text when in heavy traffic or poor weather, which I think is really stupid in the first place and should be common sense. Phones need to return to slide-out 4-5 row hardware keyboards which allow the typing to happen without requiring concentration on it. Texting while driving should be made legal as long as it happens in such a way that the driver's eyes are still within the general "windshield field of view" while doing it, which means hands would have to be on the wheel and peripheral vision would be doing its job.
This would be the safest combination. You will never stop people from texting while driving. Punishment is not a deterrent. No one thinks they're going to get in trouble for minor shit like this until they actually do; why not greatly reduce the risk involved instead of increasing it with laws that ban it? Then again, they still haven't understood this concept about marijuana and other currently illegal drugs, so I suppose we should expect no less.
Google's self-driving cars have gone 300,000 miles without an accident. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 30–42 average-teen-driver-years worth of driving. Statistically, about 1 in five teenagers reports having an accident in any given year. So we would expect that the same number of miles driven by teenagers would have resulted in, on average, 6–8 accidents—more if we're talking about teenagers in their first year of driving.
In other words, Google's self-driving cars are already at least an order of magnitude safer than teen drivers. That's probably a statistically significant difference.
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