I think text to speech and speech to text holds some promise. I just got a new smartphone and the speech recognition is pretty good. None of my cars are smart enough to have bluetooth in them but it wouldn't be a bad thing to have the phone read a message over the stereo. I don't think you'll stop people from wanting to communicate while they drive so maybe improving the safety while they do is a better strategy.
I dunno... I was taught that the driver of a vehicle has to first and foremost pay attention to the road. Any other consideration is secondary to the road, and this would include looking at/operating one's toys and gadgets. There's a disturbing lack of driver's education here in the US, as compared to other countries.
How do you convince a driver to drive, navigate then communicate? It's highly ingrained in a pilot and even those can get distracted when stuff starts going wrong. We have a different attitude about car safety and training. They keep making the system more idiot proof and evolution keeps making better idiots.
Mandatory re-testing and proper education could probably go a long way but let's face it, in North America a driving permit is generally regarded as a right and the bar is set low enough they might as well put them on crackerjack boxes.
While graduated licensing has brought some improvement, there is little thought to re-educating or maintaining those who already have a permit. As long as I paid the yearly fee I could go without driving for 30 years and still be legal to drive.
How do you convince a driver to drive, navigate then communicate?
I think eventually Darwin will handle it. There was a case on the main road near me just a couple of weeks ago. This is 4 lanes + center turn lane & wide shoulders, used to be a major route before a new freeway section opened, and now has hardly any traffic. Teen girl driving southbound somehow managed to cross the center (with rumble strips), both northbound lanes, and smash into a tree on the other side.
I was stopped at a red light 20 years ago, still legal to talk on cell phones but I was aware of the dangers of driving and handling phones, cause I am smarter then your average bear. My in car hands free phone rings, I press talk button while stopped, I speak , voice comes back through speakers. Conversations continues as if talking to passenger, I put van in gear casually drive off through red light.
The Following User Says Thank You to flying kurmaster For This Useful Post:
I think eventually Darwin will handle it. There was a case on the main road near me just a couple of weeks ago. This is 4 lanes + center turn lane & wide shoulders, used to be a major route before a new freeway section opened, and now has hardly any traffic. Teen girl driving southbound somehow managed to cross the center (with rumble strips), both northbound lanes, and smash into a tree on the other side.
While I agree, the problem with that is all the damage and death caused to other people along the way. If all the idiots just crashed into light poles when they were alone in their cars, then problem solved. But this happened yesterday. A mile and a half away from the auction, at an intersection I go through 10-20 times a week. Of the 6 cars involved, 4 were just people sitting at a red light. The brand new Aston Martin and Mercedes AMG? "Speed was a factor". Ya, you don't say.
They haven't posted the details yet, but I can tell you right now that the Aston and the Mercedes are going to be kids coming back from school (3:30 pm), with less than a year of driving experience. Probably using their phones to video the race. Look at that Escape, or what I think is a Pacifica. If that had been me in my Insight or Civic, I'd be dead. No if's ands or buts. And I went passed this about 20 mins after it happened, so there is no reason other than luck that it wasn't me. I hate the idea of having to drive a big vehicle to be safe (safer anyway), but this is the reality where I am. It's also the reason that I'm the guy that'll yell "Hey F#%$stick, get off your phone and drive!" at intersections.
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Last edited by War_Wagon; 05-09-2013 at 08:38 PM..
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