New System Detects When You Are Driving And Curbs Phone Activity Automatically

Figuring out a way to prevent distracted driving may prove to be one of the greatest life-saving inventions of the early 21st Century. The last few years of rising traffic fatalities suggest that we humans simply can't be trusted not to fiddle and futz with those teeny black mirrors we all keep in our pockets nowadays; tens of thousands of people in America alone die or are injured every year as a result of drivers being distracted by their cravings for the momentary dopamine hits provided by social media notifications or incoming text messages. 

As a result of the incredible potential of the market—after all, while technology companies want you to use your gadgets as much as possible, they also want you alive to buy the next version—companies across the planet have begun investigating ways to keep drivers from being distracted by technology while driving. Apple, for example, has patented a system that would use the Apple Watch to detect when a user is driving and minimize the distracting notifications.

TheSteve - 5/17/2017 11:26:24 AM

+2 Boost

Unfortunately, there are a number of very useful apps that have to do with being mobile, like:
- Gasbuddy (show me nearby gas stations with the lowest fuel prices)
- Waze (real-time traffic data and routing)
- A variety of hotel apps to find a place to stay when traveling

And what's to say that the passenger can't be texting while the driver is not.

I agree that there are a LOT of stupid people on the road, texting or futzing around with mobile devices while driving, or otherwise being distracted. I hope that legislation to address this isn't an over-reaction, a nanny-state control system, or the like.

Vette71 - 5/17/2017 2:12:13 PM

+2 Boost

If all phone action had to interfaced with a car's built in info system that would eliminate much of the distraction. Push a button to answer a call, voice control only to dial out, one could only text by voice as you can't punch in text while car is n motion, etc. Vehicles with systems like uConnect have already eliminated or minimized phone distraction.

MDarringer - 5/17/2017 9:07:10 PM

0 Boost

The technology to "brick" the diver's phone has existed for some time and it does not require clever patents and iWatches. It truly is as simple as software telling the phone to go to "brick" mode if it is synced up to the car and not in park.

TheSteve - 5/18/2017 9:59:39 PM

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Wouldn't what you describe be easily defeatable? Just don't pair your phone with your car, it doesn't "brick," and you're back to distracted driving.

MDarringer - 5/19/2017 12:17:45 AM

+1 Boost

Your solution is??? Oh wait! I know. Instead of doing something simple, do absolutely nothing while dreaming up something complicated and draconian.

Phones can also be made to brick based on pinging off cell towers. Conversely, data can reveal if a phone was being used for texting at the time of a crash. That information has not been admissible in court universally.

By your idiot logic, should we NOT equip cars with traction/stability control because some models allow it to be turned off thus defeating the purpose?

TheSteve - 5/19/2017 3:45:49 AM

+1 Boost

MDarringer: You're flying off the handle yet again, this time because I simply pointed out that a phone that "bricks" itself by being paired to a car can be easily defeated, just by not pairing it to a car.

From that one statement, your imagination kicked into overdrive and you imagined all sorts of wild ideas, including conspiracy theories with draconian measures. You then attributed your imaginings to me. Once again, you demonstrate your externalization / projection pathology, triggered by someone who merely disagrees with you!

You really do have the symptoms of a person who suffers from low self-esteem and the related insecurities, even though I speculate you're probably more "successful" and possess a higher I.Q. than the average American.

MDarringer - 5/19/2017 8:26:04 AM

0 Boost

Actually, I was attempting to trigger you, TheSteve, and it worked beautifully as it always does.

PS You lapsed into your Terry989 persona in the wording.

If you want people to believe TheSteve and Terry989 are different people, you have to remember to keep them separate syntactically.

You really need to keep your personas straight. Knowing you, you'll say that is somehow intolerant of the rainbow twinkle sex attraction confused idiots your tribe celebrates as the world burns.