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When will it stop...

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Why isn't texting disabled when the phone is moving at say more than 10mph?
 
Elliot - I've wondered the same thing.

Or how 'bout insurance not paying a claim, if the phone records show it was in use while the car was in motion.

Some "laws" only make legislators feel good, but they don't usually change behavior unless the affected people feel a threat. (Why do most folks stop at a red light? Because we feel safer.)
 
I was sitting high in my van the other day and I saw a cop texting. It's pervasive.

This will end up being the reason we all get self-driving cars.

Hopefully I'll be dead by the time we've evolved so far that our brains are like our appendix and robots are taking care of us. :friendly_wink:
 
aeronca65t said:
I was sitting high in my van the other day and I saw a cop texting. It's pervasive.

This will end up being the reason we all get self-driving cars.

Hopefully I'll be dead by the time we've evolved so far that our brains are like our appendix and robots are taking care of us. :friendly_wink:
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Spooky how Zager and Evans got it right, aint' it?
 
Always liked that song
 
aeronca65t said:
This will end up being the reason we all get self-driving cars.
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There is an interesting article in today's WSJ about the approach Tesla is considering to avoid the blame when a driverless car has an accident. It reminds me of the Vista operating system. In short the driver has to confirm an action before the maneuver which takes the blame off them (maybe?).
 
I hate the texting while driving thing too. A few days ago I was driving down the freeway, and there was a car in the middle lane going at least 10 mph slower than traffic. As I passed the young woman driving, you could plainly see her phone in her hands as she texted/facebooked or whatever. Several trucks and cars, including me, honked at her as we passed, but she was completely oblivious to her surroundings.

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. You can't disable texting while the car is moving. What about the passengers? My wife often answers texts on my phone for me while I'm driving. The only real answer is greater social and criminal pressure, similar to what has happened with drinking and driving.

Modern cars are just sooooo easy to drive that the temptation to do other things at the same time is very high. With all the radar-, laser-, and camera-based collision avoidance systems that are being developed, it's only likely to get worse. I agree with the previous post: I hope I die before the cars start driving themselves. (I know there are prototypes that already do).
 
How about people watching their GPS screen, now present in new cars and driving in heavy traffic? All the same, no one wants to assume the blame, but no one wants to change their policy. If a phone is blocked from texting while moving, every phone out there has to have that feature implemented, or no one will buy the blocked phones. Money, it's all about money without any regard for the downside. The way of the modern world! :stupid: PJ
 
aeronca65t said:
I was sitting high in my van the other day and I saw a cop texting. It's pervasive.
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And surely they must see the one-in-ten drivers I see on the phone. It's probably too big a pain to stop someone for talking and driving. I've nearly been hit several times by a distracted driver. Still, as you say, driver-less cars may help (some day). Hopefully not to 2525. :rapture:
 
Gliderman8 said:
There is an interesting article in today's WSJ about the approach Tesla is considering to avoid the blame when a driverless car has an accident. It reminds me of the Vista operating system. In short the driver has to confirm an action before the maneuver which takes the blame off them (maybe?).
Click to expand...

"traffic stopped, please confirm" (look up from phone) "What??", Wham.. Yea, that'll work..

It's not just texting though. It's people extending everything so as not to lose time. When I first started working out of college we still inter office mailed paper memos, not I get the "we can't have you out of contact" demand for the 10 minutes it takes to drive home. I am anyway, phone in pants pocket. But I one day in heavy traffic followed a guy for a couple miles who seemed to be conducting a meeting as he drove. Papers spread out on the dash and the passenger seat it seemed. Sandwich in one hand the other digging through the papers and driving with his left leg propped on the wheel. Which meant moving from side to side, swoop to the left back across to the berm. Decided real quick I'd rather not be following someone begging fate to intervene.
 
Boink said:
[h=2]When will it stop...[/h]... this talking, texting, emailing while driving? Laws that ban it don't seem to matter.
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You'd have an easier time bringing back Prohibition -- and enforcing it.:drill:

Current traffic density actually has me frightened of even looking at my HVAC controls or radio while driving, unless stopped at a light. Anyways, we don't own a vehicle with an automatic, this makes texting about impossible. I think about 15%-20% of driving i see in the Washington DC area are on phones... and that's just the handheld ones that I can see.
 
Tiger said:
You'd have an easier time bringing back Prohibition -- and enforcing it.:drill:

Current traffic density actually has me frightened of even looking at my HVAC controls or radio while driving, unless stopped at a light. Anyways, we don't own a vehicle with an automatic, this makes texting about impossible. I think about 15%-20% of driving i see in the Washington DC area are on phones... and that's just the handheld ones that I can see.
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I would think that with a law in place, that putting patrol officers out there to nail these people (like a radar trap) the expense would be easily covered. If people feared getting caught, maybe (only maybe) they'd refrain.

I have a hands-free system built into my car but even that is distracting and I never call with it (while in motion). The person on the other end has no idea what you're going through behind the wheel and, so, would keep on talking in a tough spot (whereas a passenger would stop talking).
 
Cops....they get laws passed to exclude them from complying. Around here, they drive single person in carpool lanes...text and use hand held cell phones while driving, run red lights and stop signs, failure to use turn signals....support gun legislation then go to the legislature to have them "exempted" from the law (seriously).
I read last year accidents and deaths caused by distracted driving, specifically cell phones and texting, surpass drunk driving incidents of the same result.
The cell phone companies have good lobbies...and lots of cash to spread around to "campaigns", so you won't see any real enactment of anything significant.
You must have experienced getting off a freeway at an off ramp, moron 4 lanes over does a 45 degree, no signal, no looking, dive to that offramp right in front of you.
GPS says "turn right here", so they do.
Same morons that drive double high tour buses under short bridges because the GPS said to....and the warning signs must be wrong.
 
about a year ago my sons friend's sister was on her phone when a car pulled up beside her and told her she shouldn't be doing that to which she replied that it was none of his business to which he replied it is my business and pulled out his badge. That shut her up and i don't think she has been on her phone in the car since.
 
A few years ago in Boca Raton, I saw the ultimate - a suicide blonde pulls up to a traffic light in a BMW Z3 with a latte in one hand and a cell phone in the other.
 
When I gesture (nothing nasty) to get off the phone, I usually get flipped off.
 
Insurance companies should deny payouts. Driving is not a right so they could demand cell phones to look at history. Police should be able to do same.
 
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