Describe the mechanics of how you would actually report all these other drivers please.
OT texting while driving epidemic
- Thread starter FastMJ
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Yep, the only technology that's going to solve the issue of terrible, selfish human drivers:
I was thinking of a tip line where you could dial a 3-digit number (hands-free of course) and report the license plate.
I'll look at my phone at a red light or a stop sign if there's a long line in front of me--I don't see any issues with that. I won't text while actively driving though--similar mindset for me as people who drink and drive. I don't care if you ruin your own car or your own life, but you can affect so many other people who were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time that I have no respect for you if you're the enabler in a situation like that.
I am guilty of it too sometimes and I need to stop.....I say to treat it more like drunk driving - at the end of the day what's the difference. Both drivers are impaired,, and both can cause serious injury or even death. You want to get something or someone to stop just put serious ramifications out there.
OP - having people report other people and there is an automatic fine would be about as close to anarchy as you can get. Your heart is in the right place, but agree with most above completely impractical.
OP - having people report other people and there is an automatic fine would be about as close to anarchy as you can get. Your heart is in the right place, but agree with most above completely impractical.
While we're talking about cell phones, how many people have seen police driving.talking on their cell phones? i see it all.he time.
Maybe an automatic fine is impractical, but at least a system to report this would enable an officer to see (after having observed the behavior directly) that the are drivers who have reported this person as an abuser. This could be used in helping the officer/judge to hand out the appropriate punishment when they look up the driving record in their computer.
And how would you do this? By picking up your phone and calling?
There are so many things that distract drivers. I am one that only grabs my phone when stopped at a light, but I drink coffee in my car. That can be distracting... I also have two kids...they can be really distracting... I am also married, and God knows, my wife can be REAL distracting..
THe insurance industry is involved in this as well. One company has an app that can be installed on your phone that not only monitors how you drive but it also deactivates your texting ability while the car in the car. Obviously its flawed (I wasn't driving, my friend was, etc), but its something.
Police will subpoena phone records after accidents as well.
The police are allowed to, it's actually written into the law. This in incase the car radios went out or so the logic went.
Some facts I heard from. CNBC documentary on how the human brain copes with communication in modern society:
- a drunk driver is 22 times more likely to get into an accident than a sober driver.
- a driver that texts is 4 times more likely to get into an accident than a drunk driver.
Texting/facebooking etc while the car is in the road (at a light or not) is an epidemic and its FREAKIN dangerous and should be treated like drunk driving. period. A drivers license is a privilege and with that comes a lot of responsibility.
- a drunk driver is 22 times more likely to get into an accident than a sober driver.
- a driver that texts is 4 times more likely to get into an accident than a drunk driver.
Texting/facebooking etc while the car is in the road (at a light or not) is an epidemic and its FREAKIN dangerous and should be treated like drunk driving. period. A drivers license is a privilege and with that comes a lot of responsibility.
hehehe !! That doesn't happen here on Staten Island. If you are the first car in line at a red light, the first second that the light turns green, you will either hear someone blowing their horn behind you, or you will see someone passing you on the right shoulder of the road. It might even be on the left side if they think they can get around you before the car coming towards them is too slow to react. Don't laugh, I see it all the time. On Saturday I saw a car pass 12 cars on the left and cut in front of the first car while we were waiting for the light to change to green. It was just 1 lane in each direction.
Hint: turn off the sound notification of an incoming text or email. That little sound will quickly or eventually cause a Pavlovian response to grab the phone and read and text back. If you stop that audio cue.. you will text a whole lot less.
The autonomous cars will be considered "driver-assisted" and the driver still needs to be sober & attentive to take control of the vehicle if something starts to go wrong and the computer doesn't compensate.
Maybe you should reread my post. I don't give a shit about what the technology is or will be. Fact of the matter is that low cost hands free sets have existed for years. Yet most people seem to choose not to use them. All a heads up display does is have people looking at their emails on the windshield instead of the iPhone. They still won't be paying attention to the road.
You seem to think that just because a technology exists, it will solve the problem. Let us not forget that seatbelts being standard in vehicles goes back to the 50's. Yet most people chose not to use this technology that was proven to be a great safety asset. It took manditory seatbelt laws and ticket blitzes in the 90's to change peoples behavior. It will take the same effort to get people to put their phones down.
Totally incorrect. In fact, I'm going to throw your accusation of regurgitating half a news story right back at you.
Driver-assisted cars are available right now (NHTSA Level 2). That's what things like adaptive cruise control and auto braking are. The next stage will be semi-autonomous vehicles, cars that can drive short distances without human input but require an attentive person at all times (NHTSA Level 3). GM will launch that exact type of capability on the 2017 Cadillac CT6, and other automakers are planning launches in similar timeframes.
The fully autonomous car (NHTSA Level 4) won't be that far behind. In fact, the technology will be ready in a few years' time; it'll just take more time for the legal, insurance and social systems to adapt around it. Once they start coming out with studies on how much safer semi-autonomous cars have made the road, expect those dominoes to start falling quickly.
The fully autonomous car, as defined by the NHTSA and as previewed by concepts like the Mercedes I pictured above, makes point-to-point journeys without a driver. It'll likely be a highway-only capability at first, with more complicated city driving following down the line. While the first fully autonomous cars will allow a human to take over, I'm with Elon Musk in thinking that they'll eventually outlaw human driving all together. The system really only fully works when it completely rids the roads of human drivers.
Anyway, it's the fully autonomous car that folks like Scarlet and I realize will solve problems like texting behind the wheel.
I drive a lot every day and I see 90% of the texters from the 20 something group. They are SO clueless. It is sad that this entire generation are driving with their heads down. Sick of it . But I hunt them down and tell them to stop .
The first offense for texting while driving should be $1,000 and one week in jail.
Ratting out people is not the answer (for practical reasons as many have pointed out). Not to mention I freaking hate tattle-tales (my kids, when they were young, got timeouts for doing something wrong - but if a kid told on a sibling, the tattle tale got an even longer timeout).
Technology will indeed help and relatively soon (probably more than 5 years, but not much more). Text to speech technology (and vice-versa) combined with location sensors combined with mobile carrier and auto makers who will be compelled to auto-disable any phone's texting/emailing capability when that phone is near the driver's seat. But using voice-only "texting" will work just fine. Or text-to-call conversion (if someone texts you, they get a message back that you're driving and the phone will offer to call instead).
Cars are incredibly, insanely, dangerous things, far more dangerous, statistically, to the average law abiding person than, say, handguns. Flinging a two-ton thing around town with lots of pedestrians around, or at speeds over 60mph on the highway... it's pretty crazy. We're used to it, but it's still nuts. I think most people don't really respect just how dangerous driving really is.
Having said all that, with respect to self-driving cars, they will have to pry my steering wheel from my cold dead fingers before I'll give it up. I get far too much joy from driving. And I'm not alone in that. Fully autonomous roadways are a long way off, not necessarily due to technological hurdles (although some remain), but due to political pressures.
Ratting out people is not the answer (for practical reasons as many have pointed out). Not to mention I freaking hate tattle-tales (my kids, when they were young, got timeouts for doing something wrong - but if a kid told on a sibling, the tattle tale got an even longer timeout).
Technology will indeed help and relatively soon (probably more than 5 years, but not much more). Text to speech technology (and vice-versa) combined with location sensors combined with mobile carrier and auto makers who will be compelled to auto-disable any phone's texting/emailing capability when that phone is near the driver's seat. But using voice-only "texting" will work just fine. Or text-to-call conversion (if someone texts you, they get a message back that you're driving and the phone will offer to call instead).
Cars are incredibly, insanely, dangerous things, far more dangerous, statistically, to the average law abiding person than, say, handguns. Flinging a two-ton thing around town with lots of pedestrians around, or at speeds over 60mph on the highway... it's pretty crazy. We're used to it, but it's still nuts. I think most people don't really respect just how dangerous driving really is.
Having said all that, with respect to self-driving cars, they will have to pry my steering wheel from my cold dead fingers before I'll give it up. I get far too much joy from driving. And I'm not alone in that. Fully autonomous roadways are a long way off, not necessarily due to technological hurdles (although some remain), but due to political pressures.
What you're describing exists today.
Within the next decade there will be cars on the road with no driver at all.
And, the accident rate for autonomous cars will be far less than for human drivers.
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i can't stand people like that. I hope they go into a tree whenever I see this stuff.
some POS cut me off yesterday and caused me to get rear ended while I was going through a green, because I had to stop to avoid hitting the scumbag in front of me, with no shoulder or lane I could have swerved into to avoid it. Didn't get his plates, which pissed me off, nor did he stop. Luckily there was no damage to the car besides a few scratches.
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I am in the insurance industry and recently heard a speaker talk about changes in insurance and the automotive world. Two things he said (I'm paraphrasing here)... The first 50 years of the auto industry were centered on saving you in the event of an accident, but now its all about avoiding accidents.
Also, he was giving a driverless car, Mercedes I believe, and "drove" it from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He said that once he hit the highway, he didn't touch the gas, brake or steering wheel once. A few times he started to grab the wheel and hit the brake, but the car was completely in control, so he didn't have to. He said it was completely terrifying though.
Also, did anyone see that Freightliner has developed the driverless 18 wheel tractor trailer? YIKES!
Also, he was giving a driverless car, Mercedes I believe, and "drove" it from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He said that once he hit the highway, he didn't touch the gas, brake or steering wheel once. A few times he started to grab the wheel and hit the brake, but the car was completely in control, so he didn't have to. He said it was completely terrifying though.
Also, did anyone see that Freightliner has developed the driverless 18 wheel tractor trailer? YIKES!
Ok it "exists" but is nowhere near mainstream. Let's keep perspective here. And there's a lot of money tied up in enforcement of drunk driving laws and the lobbying thereof that aren't going away any time soon.
Many don't, I agree. But some, like me, do. And like I said, they'll have to pry my steering wheel from my cold, dead fingers.
I wonder if the guy driving the Amtrak train was using his phone at the time he went off the rails.
When all cars are driverless we won't need stop signs, red lights, speed cameras and crosswalks.
Every car on the Turnpike would travel at the same posted speed limit and at a perfect distance behind
the car in front of them based on that speed limit. There would be a acceleration/slowdown lane on the
right for a sufficient distance for cars entering and exiting. Those entering will move to the left as they
accelerate to the speed limit and those exiting will move to the right as they approach their exit. There
will be NO cars passing another car.
Bet you all can't wait for the day. :rolleyes:
Every car on the Turnpike would travel at the same posted speed limit and at a perfect distance behind
the car in front of them based on that speed limit. There would be a acceleration/slowdown lane on the
right for a sufficient distance for cars entering and exiting. Those entering will move to the left as they
accelerate to the speed limit and those exiting will move to the right as they approach their exit. There
will be NO cars passing another car.
Bet you all can't wait for the day. :rolleyes:
It will be a very long time before self-driving is outright banned. Not gonna happen anytime in the next couple/few generations. We may start to see self-driving cars intermixed with person-driven cars soon enough, because the technology for that is moving forward quickly.
But fully autonomous roadways? Gonna be a long time.
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---for me the answer is using the blue tooth talking function of your phone, and nothing else.......Could never understand texting, when you can speak directly to the person on the phone and not have to take your hands off the wheel....
...there are some that say that talking on a phone in itself is a distraction, but if it is, it is way, way less of a distraction.....I always felt I could listen to the radio, or converse with a passenger and maintain concentration on the road........I have done so for decades and I would think most could
children are 5x more distracting than texting and modern navigation consoles are 2x more....food for thought
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