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Democratic lawmakers are calling for states to ban texting and emailing while driving. The movement comes in light of recent studies that show the practice is more dangerous than drunk driving.
Since 2005, texting has grown eleven-fold – from 10 billion to 110 billion text messages sent per month in December of 2008, according to CTIA – the cellular phone industry’s trade group. As such, an increase in overall use of text messaging would naturally lead to an increase of doing so in the car. A recent study from Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that when drivers of heavy trucks texted, their collision risk increased by 23 times. Dialing a cell phone and using or reaching for an electronic device increased risk of collision about six times in cars and trucks. The researchers said the risks of texting generally applied to all drivers, not just truckers. A separate study by Car and Driver magazine found that texting and driving is more dangerous than drunken driving.
To date, 14 states as well as the District of Colombia have passed laws banning text messaging while conducting a vehicle. States that don’t implement the proposed laws would face highway funding cuts of around 25 percent. The legislation would be patterned after the way Congress required states to adopt a national drunken driving ban. However, some don’t think that the proposed laws would be effective enough.
Steve Largent, a former Oklahoma congressman who leads CTIA — The Wireless Association, said his organization supports “state legislative remedies to solve this issue. But simply passing a law will not change behavior. We also need to educate new and experienced drivers on the dangers of taking their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel.” The Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, said it does not doubt the dangers of texting and driving but does not support a ban because it would be difficult to enforce: “Highway safety laws are only effective if they can be enforced and if the public believes they will be ticketed for not complying. To date, that has not been the case with many cell phone restrictions,” said Vernon Betkey, the highway safety association’s chairman.
This all looks to be a problem that should be solved by superior technology rather than increased lawmaking. The market should drive the tech industry to develop and improve in-car speech recognition and synthesis systems that would read incoming text messages or emails, and allow the driver to dictate a response to a message – all without having to look at the cellular device. Microsoft’s SYNC system (TNR coverage) is the most advanced in the marketplace in having both features, although it still needs to be improved in the areas of accuracy. Only available in Ford products (Ford, Lincoln, Mercury), the system also needs to become more widely available.
This post might take the place of that thing that makes you spill your morning coffee all over your Aeropostale button-up; it might startle you to a point of no return and ruin your day. So if you’re the type that is easily affected by “this is naked the truth” posts, please read no further and go back to your cubby hole; however, if you aren’t afraid of truth about the world, then by all means – read on.
I’m sure you’ve come across that person who is simply “not interested” in tech. They might be male or female, young or old, skinny or fat, blond, brunette, or redhead. And when you tell them that you’re into technology, write for blog x, work for tech firm y, or enjoy using z brand of cell phone, they just accept it and say something along the lines of “oh, I’m just not that into that tech stuff.” Well, the amount of these “types” of people that I have come across in the past few weeks seems to be growing. And it’s getting annoying. Read more »
Update: leaked screen shots of the new layout are below the jump
In an unprecedented move, MySpace has finally listened to the many complaints of its users. The social network site has completely removed ads from all of its pages! Instead it will now offer a new premium web experience.
Each profile will consist of a sleek, un-customizable design that is ad-free. The site has also begun the roll-out of a new “add-ons” section. An interesting add-on that caught my eye allows you to listen to your profile comments though a voice mail-like service via a new 1-800-MySpace phone number. Each user each will be provided with a unique call-in PIN to access the new service. Moreover, using MySpace “Phony”, currently in beta, allows users to call their online and offline buddies for a real life chat rather than chatting through text. In an effort to increase the usage of vocal chords, the service caps out at 140 spoken words that users can send to their MySpace friends. This revelotionary service allows just enough words to keep your voice from going extinct. Read more »
In the middle of last year, I pondered the whereabouts of Microsoft’s Exchange for the rest of us. Recently, I received a trackback from Paul Smith’s blog, wherein he quotes excepts of that post and writes that “Microsoft already offer push support for Hotmail, and custom domains that use Hotmail as their backend, and they offer this for free, and have done for a year or two.”
This is my reply to Paul:
Hey there Paul,
I somehow missed your reply to my post until now, so I apologize for the delayed response – linking to your post in the comments section of TechNest Report would have helped. Thanks for quoting me, by the way: I feel famous and important already
Now for the topic at hand: you state that “Microsoft already offers push support for Hotmail.” That’s great! But I have to ask: if a tree fell in a forest and nobody heard it, did it ever fall? Read more »
The very first episode of TechNest Report TV, where I – Alex Luft – recommend taking a step back and being thankful for the existence of products in the first place and how much effort goes into bringing this technology to us – the consumers.
Democratic lawmakers are calling for states to ban texting and emailing while driving. The movement comes in light of recent studies that show the practice is more dangerous than drunk driving.
Update: leaked screen shots of the new layout are below the jump
In the middle of last year, I 