General > General Technical Chat

When driving and mobile/car phones were legal

<< < (5/7) > >>

Someone:

--- Quote from: madires on October 31, 2020, 02:26:34 pm ---Modern cars have built-in mobile phones for telemetry, OTA updates and other fancy stuff. I wonder when car manufacturers will add phone calls. >:D
--- End quote ---
Prestige and sports vehicles have had this in various forms since the 90's including the ability to make calls. Lifespan of a mobile network technology/frequency pairing averages around 12 years in Australia, cars last much longer.

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: james_s on October 31, 2020, 06:06:19 am ---They were legal in the USA until relatively recently, maybe 10 years ago? Back in the early days of mobile phones they were so expensive that very few people had them and it wasn't enough of a problem for anyone to make it illegal. Also in the analog days a mobile phone was just a phone, there were no games or social media or other crap. Once it got so that everyone had one and the capabilities of the devices grew the number of accidents caused by distracted driving rose dramatically. Personally I think it should be a criminal offense if you cause any sort of accident while driving distracted, I see it so often and have nearly been run down multiple times.

--- End quote ---


Last winter, I heard an almighty crash on a nearby road...  I went for a walk, and found a BMW driven into a telephone pole, a total write-off.  The driver's explanation sounded a little rehearsed...  "the snow on the side of the road caught the car and forced it off the road"...   I thought, you forgot to add "while I was busy on my phone!"

Ranayna:
The funny thing is, that in germany, the legislation was recently expanded to *any* multimedia device with a touchscreen.
Technically, that would mean you cannot use the touchscreen of a tesla *at all* while "ready to drive" :P.
Honestly though i have no idea how "ready to drive" would be defined with a electric car, with an ICE i means while the motor is running.

And, while i have not yet driven a tesla, or any other car with such a "touch heavy" user interface, i tend to agree. I am already annoyed by the touchscreen to change radio stations of a VW Golf.

vk6zgo:

--- Quote from: SilverSolder on November 01, 2020, 07:00:33 pm ---
--- Quote from: james_s on October 31, 2020, 06:06:19 am ---They were legal in the USA until relatively recently, maybe 10 years ago? Back in the early days of mobile phones they were so expensive that very few people had them and it wasn't enough of a problem for anyone to make it illegal. Also in the analog days a mobile phone was just a phone, there were no games or social media or other crap. Once it got so that everyone had one and the capabilities of the devices grew the number of accidents caused by distracted driving rose dramatically. Personally I think it should be a criminal offense if you cause any sort of accident while driving distracted, I see it so often and have nearly been run down multiple times.

--- End quote ---
Last winter, I heard an almighty crash on a nearby road...  I went for a walk, and found a BMW driven into a telephone pole, a total write-off.  The driver's explanation sounded a little rehearsed...  "the snow on the side of the road caught the car and forced it off the road"...   I thought, you forgot to add "while I was busy on my phone!"

--- End quote ---

I think it could also be a failing in driver education.

We had, a few years back, in my part of Oz, a slew of cases where people inadvertently got the kerbside wheels off the sealed road & onto the "soft shoulder".
They were so paranoid about this happening that they jerked the wheel violently to get back on the road, lost control, & crashed.

Many years ago, when I was first licenced, there were a lot of country roads where the sealed part was quite narrow, with a metre or so of gravel either side (there were also many km of unsealed road).
If you drove outside the cities, if you met a car travelling in the opposite direction, you had to partially go onto this unsealed part.

The advice was to slowly steer onto & off the "soft shoulder" in such situations.
Obvious the same sort of advice worked if you drifted off the sealed road for any other reason.

SilverSolder:

--- Quote from: vk6zgo on November 02, 2020, 12:41:12 am ---
--- Quote from: SilverSolder on November 01, 2020, 07:00:33 pm ---
--- Quote from: james_s on October 31, 2020, 06:06:19 am ---They were legal in the USA until relatively recently, maybe 10 years ago? Back in the early days of mobile phones they were so expensive that very few people had them and it wasn't enough of a problem for anyone to make it illegal. Also in the analog days a mobile phone was just a phone, there were no games or social media or other crap. Once it got so that everyone had one and the capabilities of the devices grew the number of accidents caused by distracted driving rose dramatically. Personally I think it should be a criminal offense if you cause any sort of accident while driving distracted, I see it so often and have nearly been run down multiple times.

--- End quote ---
Last winter, I heard an almighty crash on a nearby road...  I went for a walk, and found a BMW driven into a telephone pole, a total write-off.  The driver's explanation sounded a little rehearsed...  "the snow on the side of the road caught the car and forced it off the road"...   I thought, you forgot to add "while I was busy on my phone!"

--- End quote ---

I think it could also be a failing in driver education.

We had, a few years back, in my part of Oz, a slew of cases where people inadvertently got the kerbside wheels off the sealed road & onto the "soft shoulder".
They were so paranoid about this happening that they jerked the wheel violently to get back on the road, lost control, & crashed.

Many years ago, when I was first licenced, there were a lot of country roads where the sealed part was quite narrow, with a metre or so of gravel either side (there were also many km of unsealed road).
If you drove outside the cities, if you met a car travelling in the opposite direction, you had to partially go onto this unsealed part.

The advice was to slowly steer onto & off the "soft shoulder" in such situations.
Obvious the same sort of advice worked if you drifted off the sealed road for any other reason.

--- End quote ---

This particular road was very narrow and there are no shoulders - the speed limit is 25.   The only way to lose control of a car on this stretch is by having your nose buried in your phone!

That said, I agree about lacking driver education.  Back in the day, my instructor forced me to do all kinds of difficult things - backing up around corners while staying close to the kerb,  reversing longs distances slaloming between cones, etc. etc. - he felt that if you couldn't confidently control the basic operation a car, you shouldn't be on the road!  One of the teachers I remember fondly...

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page

There was an error while thanking
Thanking...
Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod