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US Regulators Seek To Reduce Road Deaths With Smartphone 'Driving Mode' (theguardian.com)
US regulators are seeking to reduce smartphone-related vehicle deaths with a new driving-safe mode that would block or modify apps to prevent them being a distraction while on the road. From a report on The Guardian:The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are to issue voluntary guidelines for smartphone makers, which will seek to restrict the apps and services accessible on a smartphone being used by a driver. US transport secretary Anthony Foxx said: "Your smartphone becomes so many different things that it's not just a communication device. Distraction is still a problem. Too many people are dying and being injured on our roadways." The NHTSA is hoping that Apple, Samsung and other popular smartphone manufacturers will adopt the guidelines in future smartphone and software releases. The so-called driving mode will block distractions such as social media, messages or email, stop the use of the keyboard for communication activities and also restrict access to websites, video and distracting graphics. The intention is that the driving mode will be adopted in a similar manner to the airplane mode common to most smartphones and connected devices, which restricts radio communications while airborne. Airplane mode has been a feature of smartphones since 2007.
better put money in making autonomous vehicles more affordable...
Seems like this is a difficult problem to solve. Ideally the individual has sense enough to make the obvious choice to not interact with their device while driving. Sadly, that has not proven to be the case.
Knowing how government works the first thing they'll disable while the car is moving is your navigation app.
I'd be happy with a feature that forces cellphones to shoot video in landscape orientation.
I'm just guessing.... that maaaaybe these legislators don't ride the bus often?
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Education is wonderful, but we can't fix stupid. Yet.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
The solution here is rather simple. It's called real fucking punishment for the people hurting or killing other humans on the road in incidents where distracted driving was clearly the cause.
Insurance companies should not cover any costs. The individual should have to. Suspended license for 12 months. On top of that, no US cellular carrier is legally allowed to issue offenders a phone in their name for a period of 6 months.
Driving while operating cellular devices is already against the law. Enforcement is only effective with actual deterrents. If we had real punishment, we wouldn't have to be going to such extremes as motion-sensitive apps, or trying to figure out how to block the driver and let the precious snowflakes in the other seats continue to feed their cellular addictions.
If I want to be distracted while driving, that is my right! If I want to look at kiddie porn while texting and receiving fellatio from Ron Paul, that is my right!
Nothing in the Constitution gives government the right to regulate driving. NOTHING.
Perhaps it also should be your "right" to pay for 100% of the costs associated with any incident caused by you championing your inalienable right to watch porn while operating 3,000 pounds of steel barrelling 70MPH down a freeway.
Nothing should require an insurance company to pay for your fuckups. NOTHING.
Before smartphones there were handheld cell phones, radios to be fiddled with, newspapers to be read, makeup to be applied, food to be eaten, and children in the back seat to be yelled at...all activities being done by people who have come very close to kitting me at one time or another....lets make and enforce law against distracted driving without singling out particular distractions.
The solution here is rather simple. It's called real fucking punishment for the people hurting or killing other humans on the road in incidents where distracted driving was clearly the cause.
If you want to see how effective this is you merely need to look at drunk driving laws. It would have some effect but it wouldn't eliminate the problem. It also doesn't bring back to life the people that were killed by those who chose to behave irresponsibly.
The only solution that would actually work would be to basically restrict ALL phones in a car that is determined to be driving on a road automatically with no user option to override. This is technologically feasible. Yes this is an (overly?) harsh solution but realistically it's the only thing that would actually work. Depending on people to do it voluntarily is wishful thinking and demonstrably doesn't work. Depending on after the fact punishment doesn't bring back to life the people who were killed.
I thought it was not not allowed to use the aparatus at all. This would mean that you are now allowed to use it to at least receive calls. So the proposal becomes less strict.
I am also interested, as will be the rest of the world, how they will know the difference between the driver, the passenger. I am not talking about the owner of the device, I talk about the user of the device.
I often hand over my phone to the person next in shotgun to find some music they want to listen to, search a restaurant or call friends we are going to pick up. (Most of the time because I am too drunk to handle the phone and driving a get-away car takes up all my concentration, so I don' spill any meth.)
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
I spent most of my early driving years without any sort of mobile phone and not coincidentally 100% of us were not killed by people playing with their phones.
People playing with their radios, their heaters, their makeup and their dicks were a different story.
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