NHTSA Blames Rise In Traffic Fatalities On Phone Apps - Cites Idiot Driving 115 MPH While Using Snapchat As Proof

The messaging app Snapchat allows motorists to post photos that record the speed of the vehicle. The navigation app Waze rewards drivers with points when they report traffic jams and accidents. Even the game Pokémon Go has drivers searching for virtual creatures on the nation’s highways.

When distracted driving entered the national consciousness a decade ago, the problem was mainly people who made calls or sent texts from their cellphones. The solution then was to introduce new technologies to keep drivers’ hands on the wheel. Innovations since then — car Wi-Fi and a host of new apps — have led to a boom in internet use in vehicles that safety experts say is contributing to a surge in highway deaths.

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Agent009 - 11/15/2016 3:03:12 PM

+6 Boost

Interesting they blame the app rather first, then the driver driving 115 mph in that order.

TheSteve - 11/15/2016 4:21:05 PM

0 Boost

+1
HUGE "yup" to that!

TomM - 11/15/2016 5:37:45 PM

+1 Boost

In this case - I agree - it is the APP that comes first - driving at 115mph to RECORD that with a Photo - requires having the APP on your phone BEFORE you drive the car.

However - your point - that the driver should be blamed - would still apply because THEY bought the APP and used it. Still -= anyone who posts such an app is a real idiot - knowing that it MUST be used while you are driving - which itself should be (In my state is) illegal. And this APP should also be illegal.

Still - the day is coming when all of this will be controlled. Once the government learns that it CAN control these autonomous cars as well as these phones from outside the car - things like speed limits will be HARD set - and controlled by the street - and you will not be able to drive 115mph on any public road (OR go ONE mph over the limit either.) AND you will also not be able to use your phones in a car as well.

TheSteve - 11/15/2016 6:03:13 PM

+1 Boost

TomM: It ALWAYS comes down to the human and the decisions they make. I, for example, have only a mobile phone. No landline. I turn my phone to silent and no vibration (i.e., no distraction at all) when guests visit me. I'm never glued to it, texting. I'm not addicted to it. So much for the technology controlling the person.

In this specific case, you first need the kind of human who feels a need to broadcast their accomplishments, likely in seeking recognition and validation from others. In the pursuit of this objective, they employ a strategy of performing a daredevil stunt, which they intend to publicize. Finally, the tactic, the tool for executing this, is a smartphone and an app.

That last link is purely incidental. If it wasn't this app, it would be another. If it wasn't a smartphone it would be a pocket digital camera (the all have movie mode). In the old days, before snapchat, people used to video their stunts with small handheld video cams and upload them to the 'Net for notoriety. The new tech is just another tool that specific people use to carry out their intentions.

It ALWAYS begins with the person and the decisions the make.

t_bone - 11/15/2016 7:58:51 PM

+2 Boost

Please don't fumble with your phone at 115. Stay in the right hand lane or at least keep checking your rear view mirror so that others can pass.

MDarringer - 11/15/2016 8:03:39 PM

0 Boost

It simply needs to be the case technologically that once a cell phone is inside a car it is rendered 100% useless except through the vehicle's main interface.