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Technological Solution For Texting While Driving Struggles For Traction
An anonymous reader writes: While legislators and police try to tackle the epidemic of distracted driving through education, regulation, and enforcement, Scott Tibbitts is trying to solve it through engineering. He developed a small device which, when plugged into a vehicle, would determine which phone belonged to the driver and shut off its texting and voice call capabilities. "The telematics box sends a wireless message that the car is moving. The phone sends its own message about its location. Both sets of information — from the car and phone — are sent to Katasi's servers. Then, an algorithm weighs the incoming data with other information, like the location of the phones belonging to all the people who drive the car and the starting point of the trip; if the trip starts at Junior's high school, and mom and dad's phones are at work, the driver has been identified — Junior is driving."
The problem is that Tibbitts can't get anyone interested in setting up a system to make these devices ubiquitous. Consumers can't be sold on such a product: all evidence suggests people are increasingly unwilling to be cut off from constant communication. So, he tried working with carriers. Sprint partnered with Tibbitts long enough to test the device, but they were afraid of the legal risks involved. Now, Tibbitts is nursing the technology along, looking for a way to get it into cars and make people safer.
The problem is that Tibbitts can't get anyone interested in setting up a system to make these devices ubiquitous. Consumers can't be sold on such a product: all evidence suggests people are increasingly unwilling to be cut off from constant communication. So, he tried working with carriers. Sprint partnered with Tibbitts long enough to test the device, but they were afraid of the legal risks involved. Now, Tibbitts is nursing the technology along, looking for a way to get it into cars and make people safer.
If someone has so little self-control as to be unable to avoid talking or texting while driving, why are we allowing them to drive in the first place?
It is against the law pretty much everywhere. However that law is enforced pretty much nowhere. It is just simply too difficult to enforce it, as a police officer has to catch the person in the act to even write a ticket. And then the ticket is so laughably small in terms of the monetary penalty as to be pointless to even write.
In other words, people do it because they (wrongly) think they can do it safely, and then (unfortunately correctly) believe that they have nearly a zero chance of getting busted for it.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I predict idiots putting their phones in the passenger seat, and leaning over in addition to their previous phone use. Unless this is a device that can be unplugged, in which case they'll unplug it and then use their phone.
The technological solution to this problem is self-driving cars.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
How about we just put lights on top of cars that light up brightly when a text message is being sent from anyone in the car? Then the rest of the drivers on the road can avoid those idiots, as the ones who have texting passengers in the car (aside from taxis and such) are generally no better than the ones who are attempting to text while driving.
The bright light would also make it easier for cops to know who to pull over when they are doing enhanced patrols for these shit-heads as well.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
No, its not like that at all.
Its a lot more like driving while reading a newspaper, or doing anything else that takes your eyes off the road. If nothing happens that requires a quick reaction from you during the few moments that you are distracted, then nothing bad happens. But if your timing is unfortunate, so is the accident that happens.
So no, people cannot generally safely do it. It is unsafe, but also commonly uneventful.
I remember learning to drive on my grandfather's farm in his old Willy's truck. You had to double clutch because there was no syncro-gear and if you hit a deep dip or ditch the wheel would spin beneath your hands. It was vital for the survival of your thumbs to ensure that they were NEVER curled around the steering wheel or risk having them broken or torn off completely.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
It is a lot like driving with one hand verses two at the ten and two positions. Many people can safely drive with one hand but it is safer to be in the ten and two positions with two hands which is why we need to do it to pass most driving tests.
In theory (one, anyway) 10 and 2 are the best positions, so DMV examiners have been insisting on it.
In reality, it turns out, 9:30 and 3:30 are safer.
In theory, talking on the phone is distracting.
In reality, it's been shown that drivers who are a little bit tired are much safer if they're also talking.
In theory, texing bans will reduce traffic accidents.
In reality, people in those States text below the steering wheel, completely taking their eyes off the road, to avoid cops seeing then, while those in States without such bans tend to text with the phone at the top of the steering wheel, so they can at least keep half an eye on the road. Paradoxically, texting bans are deadly.
Tibbit's "solutions" work in theory, but reality is far more messy. To assume otherwise is hubristic.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
It is against the law pretty much everywhere. However that law is enforced pretty much nowhere. It is just simply too difficult to enforce it, as a police officer has to catch the person in the act to even write a ticket. And then the ticket is so laughably small in terms of the monetary penalty as to be pointless to even write.
Make the punishment fit the crime. If you're swinging a loaded gun around pointing it at people and unintentionally shoot someone you're going to jail. You drive around like a jackass, speeding, weaving in traffic, running lights or stop signs, at worse you get a ticket that cost a little bit of money. And yet far more people are killed by idiot drivers than are by gun accidents. It's completely irrational.
It's simple. The first ticket is a freebie, a $1000 and lose your license for a day. The second ticket within a year and you lose your license for a month. The third ticket in a year and you lose your license for a year. You get caught driving without a license you go to jail for a year. You put black boxes in cars that record the last half hour of activity to provide irrefutable evidence. Also use that information in the case of a collision and if it shows any person caused the collision it's their third strike and they lose their license for a year. No need for distracted driving or no telephoning or no texting or even drink driving laws. One way or another the people left on the roads will be much safer and nicer. Oh, and the 40,000 killed and hundreds of thousands more injured and maimed would go away almost over night along with much of the massive financial burden caused by the idiotic carnage on the roads.
Who is John Galt?
Have you been in a car crash where the airbag deployed? Your seatbelt is the most important thing, yes, but god damn that airbag is powerful. I can still taste the blood 8 years later. I can honestly say I've never been hit by anything as hard as that airbag, and that was a low speed crash. I almost lost half of an ear to it as well, since I wear glasses. My glasses flew forwards from the initial impact, then the airbag hit with enough force to push the earpiece through my ear and rip the top half nearly all the way off. A tiny piece of skin was the only thing holding it on. To this day I can't wear in-the-ear earbuds because the one on that side works itself out.
So yeah, as the poster above you said... Airbags are good in life or death situations. For any other crash, they're easily as much of a danger as the crash itself.
Yesterday I sat in a bus that almost hit a woman riding a bike with a child in the back seat (normal in the Netherlands) while the woman was crossing the street while texting/facebooking/twittering/bejeweleding.
Sadly it is very common for women texting while riding a bike while crossing a busy street. BTW I've never seen a man using a phone while riding a bike.