A Simple Tech-Free Solution to Texting and Driving
Locking your phone by physically connecting it in the car (as illustrated at left) will defeat texting and driving. All we need is a nationwide law: No touching of the mobile phone when driving a car.
It seems like such an obviously stupid thing to do – texting and driving. When you hear about this epidemic you wonder “Who could be stupid enough to try to send text messages while driving a car?” It must be every other idiot on the road, certainly not you or me or anyone we know, that is texting and driving.
Sure, we may look up a song track on our phone to play through the car stereo system. Or maybe we’ll enter a destination in the navigation system on the phone. Or maybe we will look up a name in the phonebook in order to make a hands-free call for something “urgent.”
But we’d NEVER text and drive!
The reality is all of those other use cases are identical to sending a text message while driving and this behavior is killing about 9 people every day in the U.S. The latest solution to garner headline attention is Katasi – a system developed with the help of American Family Insurance and nearly brought to market by Sprint.
New York Times article: ‘Trying to Hit the Brake on Texting and Driving’ - https://tinyurl.com/pweta48
The vision of the founders of Katasi is to use vehicle connectivity via a module plugged into the car’s OBDII port to control access to the use of the mobile phone depending on who is driving and whether the vehicle is moving. The Katasi vision, in other words, takes into account all drivers of the car for a more complete driver identification and policy management layer based on both the wireless network and Kanasi’s servers.
The NYT story talks about the failure of the Katasi product to reach the market through Sprint because of legal concerns. Sprint was uncertain that the system could reliably be counted on to block all texts during driving.
Katasi represents a clever concept and echoes the approach proposed by LocationLabs, to offer a subscription service for blocking texts while driving. But these server-based solutions are just the latest step in a so-far failed industry-wide initiative to solve the texting and driving problem in the U.S.
We have had apps (on the phone), and blocking devices (installed in the car), and network propositions such as Katasi and LocationLabs. The struggle is reflected in the patchwork quilt of state laws banning texting and driving, handheld phone use, or teen use of mobile phones while driving (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety – state law maps - https://tinyurl.com/l26dp5z):
All of the solutions for preventing texting and driving require the consent and active participation of the users. This has proven to be a fatal flaw – even more so than the technical complexity of products such as Katasi. The variability of state laws, which is only hinted at in the IIHS maps, is another barrier.
It is time for the Federal government in the U.S. to institute a single nationwide policy of no touching of the phone while driving. A similar strategy was taken with seatbelt laws – tying implementation of these laws to access to critical highway funds.
Seatbelt laws, too, are fraught with fragmentation and inconsistency (Governor’s Highway Safety Administration – Seat Belt Laws - https://tinyurl.com/3yhwwp). But the estimated number of lives saved by the use of seatbelts since 2004 runs to well over 100,000, or more than three years’ worth of total highway fatalities in the U.S.
My proposed no touching of the phone while driving law and the existing seatbelt laws share a similarity. Both laws are challenged by the mix of states laws some of which consider the offense a primary (main motivation for pulling a car over) vs. secondary infraction (can be added onto another primary offense). But both laws are easy to enforce based on police officers observing the outlawed behavior – ie. a lack of a seatbelt or clear presence of mobile phone in a driver’s hand.
We want drivers to have their mobile phones in their cars when driving. The mobile phone can be a lifesaving tool in the event of an accident or some other vehicle-related crime. But the phone should be connected and, therefore, disabled – as illustrated in the picture at the beginning of this commentary.
We want phones to have a hard wired connection in the car. The physical connection will obviate the need for wireless charging, will enhance the wireless reception of the phone and it will allow control of the phone to be transferred to the vehicle’s human machine interfaces – voice, steering wheel, etc.
But most important of all – a physically connected smartphone in a car properly implemented, will disable the mobile device’s interfaces for direct use by the driver. All that is missing still, in many cars today, is A) a way to physically connect the phone and B) a place to stow the connected phone. (Alternatively, the driver can leave the phone in pocket, purse or briefcase and only use it via the wireless connection.)
The goal is to fulfill the law I propose: Do not touch the phone while driving! Problem solved.
Chief Technical Officer; and Chief Strategy, Sales and Marketing Officer
10 年Hi Roger, Ok, interesting, but... are you suggesting a law that mandates your phone must be physically plugged in to something while driving? Sounds like the equivalent of the mandatory seatbelt law. Can imagine random roadblocks pulling cars over to check for cellphones being physically plugged in and giving tickets out. Don't think that would fly for very long. What about two cellphones in the car, 3, etc. What about cars that don't have OBD-II ports, are your mandating that all cars have this port just so that cellphones can be disabled. What happens in the future when we come up with a better interface than OBD-II. A better solution in my opinion is for the app platform (on a built-in head-unit or perhaps on a phone) have situational awareness. Nothing wrong with texting while stopped on the side of the road. Nothing wrong with being notified of an email or text while driving with say a sound played, but have to pull over to receive it. Nothing wrong with voice recognition to change radio stations while we are driving. Nothing wrong with simplified controls while driving versus more complex user-interface while standing still. Note: I don't have an answer for the second or third or more cellphone in the car, which in my opinion makes any sort of law about having your cellphone plugged in essentially meaningless. I would rather see the focus on trying to build solutions that try to reduce driver distraction and increase intuitive use of technology.