More Not-Entirely-Useful Tech Tries To Stop Texting While Driving
from the wut-r-u-tryin-2-do-2-my-fon-dad dept
While legislators try (and fail) to ban the use of mobile phones while driving, the market for technology to kill phone use while driving is heating up. Last month, a company announced a device aimed at stopping teens from talking while driving, though it appears to have plenty of pitfalls. Now comes "Textecution" (a piece of software for Android phones) that kills a device's ability to send or receive texts when it detects the phone is moving at more than 10 miles per hour. The application's developers intend for parents to install it on their kids' phones so they can't text while driving -- assuming, of course, the kids have a G1 handset. That's a significant hurdle in itself, as it's hard to imagine that, as with so many other things, kids won't find it too hard to circumvent. Also, the application can't tell when a kid is actually driving a car, or simply riding in one, or riding on a bus or train, or in another situation where they're moving faster than 10 mph, but not driving a car, and perfectly able to safely text. It really appears that this software isn't much of a solution, but rather window dressing that makes parents think they're doing something to protect their kids. But isn't installing some easily defeated application on your teenager's phone to put your mind at ease simpler than trying to teach them responsibility?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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Filed Under: driving, text messages
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2 cents
Look around. When was the last time you saw a parent do anything to teach responsibility?
But then again, teenagers only represent a very, very small part of the population who would be stupid enough to text/talk while driving.
While a phone is a distracting device, I still don't believe it's causing as many accidents out there. I blame idiotic driving habits on people who cut off others, change lanes without signaling, driving too fast in traffic, and my favorite: running lights when they should stop.
So knock it off, people.
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Re: 2 cents
There is evidence (see links below) that using a cell phone while driving is becoming a serious road hazard. 2600 deaths per year and 330,000 injuries due to driving accidents while using the cell phone is kind of hard to ignore. A study that shows using a cell phone is a greater driver impairment than a blood alcohol content of 0.08% is hard to ignore. The fact that cell phone use increases the risk of an accident over non cell phone use by a factor of 4 is hard to ignore.
Bottom line: Your cell phone use while driving puts my life at risk.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-19-handsfree-driving_x.htm
http://en.wikiped ia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_and_driving_safety?ref=http%3A//www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dharv ard+cell+phone+use+accident+statistics
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Power Steering
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What a horrible idea...
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But it's for the children!
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euthanasia
When properly installed it will allow the implantee to speak to God.
The implant may or may not be painless.
Side effects, like headaches and nausea, are temporary.
Some bleeding or swelling may occur at the injection site.
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Re:
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Battery Life et. al.
First, the "fine" GPS would be needed with this application. Using the fine resolution zaps the battery. If someone tried to use this application, what it would actually prevent is anyone using the phone for anything after 1 PM because the battery would be dead by then.
Second, the security system on the G1 is intended to allow anything that is is installed to be removed easily. Any half-way competent hacker can get around that, but I am sure nothing that tried to circumvent security would get past on the Google Market. The parent would have to check the phone frequently to see if it was still there, and there would be no way to prevent the teen from uninstalling, texting while driving, and then reinstalling.
Finally, I am reminded of the old joke about filters on the Internet. The joke goes something like, "there are already kiddie filters on the Internet, but the kids won't tell the grownups how to turn them on." In mose families the teenagers are a lot more tech savvy than the parents. Anything that the parents did would be undone in a matter of minutes by the teens.
Finally, there are a lot of reasons a person would want to use a phone while moving more than 10 mph. One of my daughters called me to tell me she didn't think the person she was with was a safe driver. I am sure glad I didn't have a speed lock on her phone.
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Sure would suck if...
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Re: Sure would suck if...
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Re: Re: Sure would suck if...
See personally, I don't have kids yet but when I do I will teach them to respect the deadly power of cars. If I don't feel they've learned the lesson, they won't drive. I plan on installing watchdog devices in the car so I know how they are driving and if I find that they're driving irresponsibly, they will lose the car. If not, no harm done.
In either case, I will not hamper their ability to call me in an emergency just becaues they happen to be moving > 10 MPH, and I will have peace of mind.
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Re: Re: Re: Sure would suck if...
There is evidence (see links below) that using a cell phone while driving is becoming a serious road hazard. 2600 deaths per year and 330,000 injuries due to driving accidents while using the cell phone is kind of hard to ignore. A study that shows using a cell phone is a greater driver impairment than a blood alcohol content of 0.08% is hard to ignore. The fact that cell phone use increases the risk of an accident over non cell phone use by a factor of 4 is hard to ignore.
Bottom line: Your cell phone use while driving puts my life at risk.
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Isn't america great...
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Jammer
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The real solution...
No, the real solution is to make a blue tooth device that is somehow attached to the car key, and when the car key is inserted it sends a message to the phone to disable the phone. Would need to be incorporated to make sure it isn't circumvented. And you could add the motion thing to only disable if the key is in the ignition and the car is travelling more than xx mph.
That is my thoughts anyway.
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Better than nothing...
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no text-no cell service when driving...
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No texting while driving.
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No texting while driving.
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