New Zealand Says You Can't Use Your Mobile Phone For Navigation While Driving

from the because-that-would-upset-the-GPS-device-makers dept

Tue, Sep 29th 2009 5:28pm — Mike Masnick

Brendan was the first of a few to submit the story that New Zealand is telling people that they can't use their mobile phones for navigation purposes, even if that phone is mounted on the dashboard like a regular GPS navigation device. Regular GPS devices are fine... but a mobile phone acting just like one of those devices? That's illegal. Why? No one seems to be saying, but you can bet the standalone GPS makers are happy about this... Update: Well, that was fast. Given public backlash, the gov't has already decided to back down and rewrite the laws to allow mobile phone navigation systems.

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: driving, gps, navigation, new zealand

16 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Misanthropist (profile), 29 Sep 2009 @ 5:47pm

huh
Gee, I wonder what lobbying group paid for this legislation.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
slackr (profile), 29 Sep 2009 @ 6:22pm

Update
This was initially the case but the Government have realised the error of their ways. 3news.co.nz
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- slackr (profile), 29 Sep 2009 @ 6:23pm
  
  Re: Update
  actually there's an update link in the original article now too.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Mike Masnick (profile), 29 Sep 2009 @ 6:39pm
  
  Re: Update
  Aha! Updated the post. Thanks!
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2009 @ 7:18pm
    
    Re: Re: Update
    I'd say that the update would be worthy of it's own post.
    
    Sad as it may be, it's quite impressive when legislators can promptly respond to public outcry and fix unintended side effects of legislation.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 29 Sep 2009 @ 6:51pm

It's funny to see how in the US they would have never retracted the law. Nice to see a govt that actually listens to its people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- zcat (profile), 29 Sep 2009 @ 7:58pm
  
  Re:
  You wish.
  
  We had a referendum recently, following up on a fairly controversial change of law under the previous government. 54% of the electoral roll voted, 87.6% of those voted NO.
  
  You think they listened?
  
  http://www.voteno.org.nz/polls.htm
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 29 Sep 2009 @ 8:18pm

The Stupid Thing Is...
...there is already a law against driving “without due care and attention”, which you would think would be ample to catch those misusing mobile phones, make-up compacts, cheese graters, lion-taming kits, or indeed any past, present or future technological item that could reasonably cause a distraction. Yet the Government had to go out of its way to pass a new law specifically addressing mobile phones. Thereby catching some unintended fish in its net, which it then has to go back and release by adding yet another complication on top of the unnecessary complication it already introduced.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Killer_Tofu (profile), 30 Sep 2009 @ 6:46am
  
  Re: The Stupid Thing Is...
  That is the same problem I have with them passing "no talking on cell phone while driving" laws here in the US (or anywhere really). There are already laws for reckless endangerment and failure to illustrate due care and stuff like that. So why do we need laws banning tiny little things here and there. Some people drive just fine talking on a cell phone. Others do not. For those who do not there are already laws to ticket them.
  I guess it is just the politicians trying to justify their existence. If only we had actual public servants instead of politicians we would be a lot better off.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2009 @ 7:12am
    
    Re: Re: The Stupid Thing Is...
    That is the same problem I have with them passing "no talking on cell phone while driving" laws here in the US (or anywhere really). There are already laws for reckless endangerment and failure to illustrate due care and stuff like that. So why do we need laws banning tiny little things here and there. Some people drive just fine talking on a cell phone. Others do not. For those who do not there are already laws to ticket them.
    
    Amen. The same thing applies to those stupid drinking and driving laws too. Some people can drink and drive just fine, others cannot. For those who cannot there are other laws that can be applied.
    
    I guess it is just the politicians trying to justify their existence. If only we had actual public servants instead of politicians we would be a lot better off.
    
    It's the feminization of society and the resultant pandering by politicians to groups like MADD.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oh noes, 29 Sep 2009 @ 9:01pm

Oh noes
Look! An apostrophe! Let's lose our minds and fall over backwards, frothing at the mouth!

It's 2009.

Learn to deal with apostrophes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2009 @ 12:05am
  
  Re: Oh noes
  What the hell are you talking about?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- ChadBroChill (profile), 30 Sep 2009 @ 1:21am
  
  Re: Oh noes
  Que? Are you crazy or just on the wrong site?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2009 @ 3:55am
  
  Re: Oh noes
  Let's lose our minds and fall over backwards, frothing at the mouth!
  
  What are you doing, giving a demonstration?
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2009 @ 3:59am

Texting too...
They should update the law to allow texting and emailing while driving too. Sometimes you need to get directions while driving and not everyone has GPS.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
leo, 1 Oct 2009 @ 4:06am

what a stupid legislation system.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]