“Smart” phones

[tonyb]

 

[Nobert]

"No espcape," indeed.

 

[BobHufford]

Pretty much spot on. They're going to have to resolve the "texting while driving" issue (or at least perfect the autonomous autos) before we get our flying cars.

 

[Edward]

Pretty much spot on. They're going to have to resolve the "texting while driving" issue (or at least perfect the autonomous autos) before we get our flying cars.

Here in the UK it's a specific offence to use a hand-held phone while driving (it always was likely to be grounds for careless driving anyhow). Sadly hasn't stamped it out yet...

 

[GHT]

View attachment 193426

 

[scotrace]

Honestly people, catch up. Those who cannot attend to business in the car are spoiling it for those who can. People are simply not going to stop doing it.

 

[3fingers]

There have been 27 or 28 collisions with state police vehicles alone on the side of the road so far this year in this one state. At least 4 troopers killed in said accidents. A substantial number of roadside workers injured or killed the same way. Nearly all of the drivers were distracted by devices.
Driving while piddling with your electronic toys thinking that you can handle it is no different than the guy that thinks he's still a good driver when he's had 3 or 4 drinks.

 

[tonyb]

Honestly people, catch up. Those who cannot attend to business in the car are spoiling it for those who can. People are simply not going to stop doing it.

Substitute “drink beer” for “attend to business” and you could be the Old Man, c.1964.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We've banned all hand-held device use in cars in my state, and it does seem to have made a dent. I don't see so many idiots in parking lots yammering into their electronic pacifiers while making for the exit.

Still don't have one. Still don't want one.

 

[tonyb]

We've banned all hand-held device use in cars in my state, and it does seem to have made a dent. I don't see so many idiots in parking lots yammering into their electronic pacifiers while making for the exit.

Still don't have one. Still don't want one.

As I’ve undoubtedly noted here before, I’d welcome more stringent traffic code enforcement around here. I see the aftermath of collisions much more frequently than I see motorists pulled over for infractions.

 

[Woodtroll]

Honestly people, catch up. Those who cannot attend to business in the car are spoiling it for those who can. People are simply not going to stop doing it.

Surely this is sarcasm? First responders working highway crashes caused by texting or inattention are then often struck by other drivers who don't see the accident scene because they are "attending to business" on their phone. A recent local multi-fatality crash was caused by a semi-driver who set his cruise control on 70MPH then proceeded to watch a video on his phone. He survived with minor injuries and is now charged with murder, as he should be.

 

[GHT]

UK Newspaper Headline:
Dashcam footage shows a lorry driver changing music on his mobile phone seconds before crashing and killing a mother and three children. Tomasz Kroker, 30, from Andover, Hampshire, was jailed on Monday for 10 years at Reading crown court. The fatal crash on 10 August on the A34 dual carriageway north of Newbury in Berkshire killed Tracey Houghton, 45, her sons Ethan, 13, and Josh, 11, and her stepdaughter, Aimee Goldsmith, 11, all from Bedfordshire.
This link will take you to the newspaper, there's a link there that shows you some of the footage. It was all filmed on the drivers on board cameras. The scene is too gruesome to show everything.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...oker-tracey-houghton-mobile-a34-dashcam-video

 

[tonyb]

I’ve heard and read that even when cell phone conversations are on hands-free gizmos, the drivers are still distracted such that they pose a risk on a par with drivers who have had a couple of beers. I’ve made no closer examination of those reports, and I hope they’re wrong, but I suspect they’re right.

Just a couple weeks ago the dewy-eyed bride and I took possession of a car eight years newer than the one it replaced. This new(er) car has a radio that launches missiles in Siberia. After a fortnight or so I am now only slightly addled by it. (It has “modes,” and that’s just the beginning of it.) Just this afternoon it trained me in “pairing” my iPhone. Now all I gotta do is push a button on the steering wheel and bark a command and bingo!, it does what I tell it. Another button on the steering wheel answers incoming calls and a button next to it “hangs up.”

Is this a thing of wonder? I sure would have thought so not all that many years ago. But if those studies alluded to above are indeed more right than wrong, then I have at my fingertips (literally) a pretty darned seductive distraction.

 

[tonyb]

Surely this is sarcasm? ...

I do hope (and suspect) so.

 

[tonyb]

FWIW, I didn’t come upon this item independently. I haven’t dug through the Tacoma News-Tribune’s archives. It’s possible that the item is a clever hoax. It does seem almost *too* good.

I can verify that Mark R. Sullivan was president of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, though.

 

[scottyrocks]

I don't like speaking on the phone when I'm driving. It is indeed distracting.

It's not like having the radio on because it's interactive. That means 'multi-tasking,' which doesn't exist, btw, because multi-tasking is really diverting your attention between two or more things occurring at the same time, not 'doing two things at once.'. That is not a good thing to do while driving.

I don't even like using Waze while I am driving (even glancing at all the info on the screen takes your eyes off the road), but I do use it because getting to work has got to be done in the most efficient way possible. I leave early enough as it is, and I still need it here in $#!+ City.

 

[Touchofevil]

I refuse to be distracted by my phone while driving by keeping it in the backseat of the truck with the volume off. There are enough distracted idiots on the road with no need for me to be one of them.

 

[Edward]

I’ve heard and read that even when cell phone conversations are on hands-free gizmos, the drivers are still distracted such that they pose a risk on a par with drivers who have had a couple of beers. I’ve made no closer examination of those reports, and I hope they’re wrong, but I suspect they’re right.

Just a couple weeks ago the dewy-eyed bride and I took possession of a car eight years newer than the one it replaced. This new(er) car has a radio that launches missiles in Siberia. After a fortnight or so I am now only slightly addled by it. (It has “modes,” and that’s just the beginning of it.) Just this afternoon it trained me in “pairing” my iPhone. Now all I gotta do is push a button on the steering wheel and bark a command and bingo!, it does what I tell it. Another button on the steering wheel answers incoming calls and a button next to it “hangs up.”

Is this a thing of wonder? I sure would have thought so not all that many years ago. But if those studies alluded to above are indeed more right than wrong, then I have at my fingertips (literally) a pretty darned seductive distraction.

Yeah, my folks have something like that, though it's of limited use to them on many journeys as there are significant chunks of the road over there where the signal drops out suddenly and completely. I can se it being useful in an accident if it means an injured driver who otherwise can't get to the phone can call an ambulance. That said, the reports I've seen publicised are increasingly suggesting that conversing even via handsfree provides a distraction that isn't present when talking to someone actually in the car. (I wish I could remember where I saw that report - as a non-car person, I didn't pay it as much mind as I might otherwise have done). There's been talk of banning it here. Technically, as with handhelds before the specfic ban, it could be associated with driving without dued care and attention. How they'd enforce a specfic ban, I don't know, though, given the first line of defence would doubtless be that it was a passenger was having the conversation or some such...

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Unfortunately,'Smart' refers to the device not the user.

 

[LizzieMaine]

FWIW, I didn’t come upon this item independently. I haven’t dug through the Tacoma News-Tribune’s archives. It’s possible that the item is a clever hoax. It does seem almost *too* good.

I can verify that Mark R. Sullivan was president of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, though.

There were a lot of predictions like that around this time. The Smithsonian Institution had a radio program called "The World Is Yours," with much speculation about the future, and in one 1938 broadcast they went on at length about pocket-sized hand-held wireless phones with instantaneous world-wide audio-video reception. The only thing they got wrong was the idea that enterprising youths would beat the prices of the manufacturers by building their own phones from loose parts.