Brace Yourself For Laws Banning Laptop Use While Driving
from the just-wait dept
As legislators continue their pointless attempts to ban driving distractions one by one, rather than focusing on the underlying problem of unsafe and unintelligent drivers, hopefully at some point they'll realize that they can keep making laws all they want, but there's an infinite number of things to pull a driver's attention away from what they're doing. These sorts of laws and proposals typically follow some sort of incident, such as the recent proposal by a New York lawmaker to ban talking on a phone or listening to an iPod while crossing the street after two people got killed when they were crossing a street with headphones in. Keeping that in mind, don't be surprised when lawmakers start proposing laws to ban the use of laptops while driving, following a California accident that killed a man (who happened to be a computer tutor), and police think he might have been using a laptop while driving. The guy's Honda Accord went left of center, and hit an oncoming Hummer head-on. Investigators found his laptop plugged in to the cigarette lighter and still on, with some LED on it lit up as well. While they suspect he was using the laptop at the time of the crash, it is of course possible that he was simply charging it. But, most reasonable people would probably think that using a laptop while driving a car isn't a particularly safe thing to do -- just like plenty of other activities lawmakers have targeted with specific laws. These single-focus laws miss the point: that there are all sorts of activities that make driving less safe. The best way forward isn't to try and come up with laws banning each and every one, but rather to tackle the issue of unsafe driving as a whole.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Binning all sorta stuff
If you draw up a hit list in order of "how distractable and how common" you'd have to outlaw two small children in the back seat straight away.
Even the "don't legislate for stupidity" discussion aside, these laws will never really be applied logically.
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Laptop?
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Re: Laptop?
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Re: Laptop?
it doesn't matter what one does while driving.. if your times up... your times up darwin.
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Laptop?
I really don't think the government should be regulating what few population control measures we have left!
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We're surrounded by Morons...
I see a market for MS or another company to add driving laws to it's trip planning software. This way you'll know when you're entering a city, county or state that doesn't allow smoking, eating, passengers, talking on the phone (headset or otherwise) while driving in your car.
Maybe I should patent that idea. :)
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Natural Selection
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Re: Natural Selection
Reagan (an actor) was president, Schwarzenegger (a bad actor/body builder) is governor, and Ex-governor/wrestler Ventura will be teaching at HARVARD. The future is now.
Mike Judge is a genius; the irony of Judge making fun of his clientele alone is what makes the movie so funny. ... I don't think he expected anyone to notice.
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Most of these people can't drive, distracted or not. I am going to have to agree that Natural Selection needs to screen out some of these people. People think they are all of equal ability and should be able to drive anything they want. This leads people to think that if they wreck their SUV, it’s the manufactures fault for the blind spots…. Not the drivers fault for being incapable of navigating their vehicle.
Here's the plan, we make new licenses with degrees of difficulty assigned to each. If you want to attain a higher level of license, you must pass a more difficult test and prove a higher level of competency. This would include knowing your vehicles limits (since idiots seem to think an SUV/Truck should be able to travel 80MPH+ when the tires are rated at 80…). People with a higher level licenses who have proven to be better drivers get more leniency on judgment call tickets such as basic rule for weather conditions, what constitutes a safe speed for an area, etc. If you fail to maintain a high level or driving ability, your license gets demoted.
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Re: By Casper
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Actually...
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odd
where does the significant difference come in different types of computers?
will all computers will be prohibited? Slate tablets, laptops? how about gps navigators with bluetooth and mp3 players integrated? they are all computers they just don't all run windows or osx... they all use os of some kind. In a congress that barely understands technology it might end up being amusing.
this is all on top of the things that most everybody has covered till i posted.
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A.
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The root of the problem
Driving is boring thanks to all the safety and automatic controls cars have, and rush hour traffic keeps speeds to less than 20 MPH.
Force people to drive Honda 250 motorcycles around in India-like traffic and nobody would THINK about pulling out their laptop.
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two cents worth
I say, let gasoline be $5.00 a gallon, let cars cost 100 times the current cost, let insurance be as expensive as a small Caribbean island.
Oh, hell…Let’s just hold people responsible for their actions.
Self Responsibility, pass a law on that.
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Responsibility...
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Re: two cents worth
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Distracted driving's already against the law.
What's the issue with enforcing it right now? Oh maybe not enough manpower to enforce it, because most governments squander all the tax dollars and can't afford to pay police officers a decent salary and/or have enough of them?
So - what good is a new law going to do, when you can't enforce the ones on the books now?
I guess eventually, we'll all be criminals, well according to the 'law' anyway.
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Already Illegal...
27602. (a) A person may not drive a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor, or a television or video screen, or any other, similar means of visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal that produces entertainment or business applications,
is operating and is located in the motor vehicle at any point forward of the back of the driver's seat, or is operating and visible to the driver while driving the motor vehicle.
(b) Subdivision (a) does not apply to the following equipment when installed in a vehicle:
(1) A vehicle information display.
(2) A global positioning display.
(3) A mapping display.
(4) A visual display used to enhance or supplement the driver's view forward, behind, or to the sides of a motor vehicle for the purpose of maneuvering the vehicle.
(5) A television receiver, video monitor, television or video
screen, or any other, similar means of visually displaying a
television broadcast or video signal, if that equipment has an
interlock device that, when the motor vehicle is driven, disables the equipment for all uses except as a visual display as described in paragraphs (1) to (4), inclusive.
(6) A mobile digital terminal installed in a vehicle owned or
operated by an electrical corporation, as defined in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined in Section 9604 of that code, a gas corporation, as defined in Section 222 of that code, or a telephone corporation, as defined in Section 234 of that code, if the mobile digital terminal is fitted with an opaque covering that does not allow the driver toview any part of the display while driving, even though the terminal may be operating.
(c) Subdivision (a) does not apply to a mobile digital terminal installed in an authorized emergency vehicle or to a motor vehicle providing emergency road service or roadside assistance.
(d) Subdivision (a) does not apply to a mobile digital terminal installed in a vehicle owned or operated by an electrical corporation, as defined in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, a local publicly owned electric utility, as defined in Section 9604 of that code, a gas corporation, as defined in Section 222 of that code, or a telephone corporation, as defined in Section 234 of that code, when the vehicle is deployed in an emergency to respond to an interruption or impending interruption of electrical, natural gas, or telephone service.
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When the bill first came out, the CHP cracked down on real estate agents and others who lived with their laptop on their front seat, now it is primarily used to stop people from installing in dash dvd players and such.
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Police?
I really wish stupidity was painful!!! if not deadly!
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Yeah? And how would they accomplish that? I agree that creating laws to protect the stupid from themselves is bullshit but how else do you protect the rest of us from the stupid? How about you propose an alternative instead of simply saying "this is ridiculous and they should tackle THIS issue" but not providing any suggestions.
Last time I checked, driving tests don't include cell phones, laptops, food, make-up, newspapers, radios, ipods, etc as part of the approved list of distractions to test for.
As a result, once the license is in-hand people are largely free to do whatever they want and it is up to the LAWS to control their actions. If there is no law controlling an activity then the police can't enforce it. If it isn't illegal to use a laptop while driving then the only way to combat it is with "reckless driving" which is a good bit more difficult to prove in a court.
As far as I am concerned they SHOULD make it all illegal. Why? To protect those of us with COMMON SENSE from those who don't. Is it a pain in the ass? Yeah but I'd rather be mildly inconvenienced than die as a result of some asshat who was "too important" to be concerned with responsibility and their civic duty towards those around them.
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I disagree.
When I read the headline, I thought "What's the big deal?"
I love my laptop, but why would I use it while I'm driving?
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a few more laws...
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Re: a few more laws...
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Laptops on road trips
We hook up a laptop and throw on a movie and use a cassette tape adapter for sound on the car's speakers. Obviously the driver isn't watching but if these morons ever passed the law and we couldn't do that anymore, it would make long trips a hell of a lot longer...
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where being turned into mindless drones
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So....
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Re: So....
These single-focus laws miss the point: that there are all sorts of activities that make driving less safe. The best way forward isn't to try and come up with laws banning each and every one, but rather to tackle the issue of unsafe driving as a whole.
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Wow.....
What you can do:
Blink
Breath
Think
Make minor hand and foot motions to turn the wheel, press the gas pedal or break, or turn on the blinker/whipers
EVERYTHING ELSE:
FORBIDDEN
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Probably not the laptop
There really isn't any way to tell if the guy was using the laptop, but seeing as this is a high accident road and that conditions were poor, there wouldn't have been any need any abnormal distractions for this accident to have happened. This story is being way over-hyped.
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The most dangerous distraction...
Of course, government is all about burdening people to gain negligible improvements while completely ignoring the cause of 99% of the problem. It's also all about appearing to address problems to the most ignorant, regardless of what is actually accomplished.
I think our whole society is auditioning for a Darwin award.
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Police officer using laptop while stopped at red light
He's in a motor vehicle that's running, in traffic. In our state, Alaska, texting while driving is illegal. I figure I can't text while stopped at a light, but he can type away all he wants?
You post the real issue is tackling unsafe driving as a whole. How specifically would you do that? People do what they want to, irregardless of how it affects others. To me, I guess continuing to make activities illegal is a tad helpful, at least. Feel free to be more specific on how you think this problem could be corrected.
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