The young woman in a Corolla had the slows, yet was swerving as if drunk. When I pulled alongside of her at a stoplight, I saw that she was texting. As we took off, after the light changed, she continued to text and swerve and text and swerve. Two years ago, University of Utah professor Frank Drews told me that an estimated 60 percent of teen drivers text while driving. Activities such as texting, with multiple steps that take your eyes off the road for more than two seconds, are far more dangerous than talking on the cell phone. This according to the 100 Car Study by Virginia Tech researchers, in which video cameras recorded drivers over a year. For example, dialing and talking were responsible for equal numbers of cell phone-related mishaps and near mishaps, despite the fact that far more time is spent talking than dialing. And now, there may be a technological fix…
The University of Utah has developed an automobile ignition key that prevents the use of cell phone tech while driving. The key connects wirelessly with each key users cell phone via Bluetooth or radio-frequency identification technology, to prevent its use for dialing anything but 911 and numbers pre-approved by the parents. When not in the ignition, the key is placed in a special device that blocks these signals. This so-called Key2SafeDriving would probably be licensed to cell phone service providers to include in their service plans.
I can’t understand how this technology would work. It’s possible to use a phone without having Bluetooth switched on, the user can deactivate it on the handset. No Bluetooth, no connectivity to the system, no results.
How about a key that immediately kills the engine and suspends the drivers license if they try to text while driving. I can deal with calls, but texting? Hell no.
“Quick! Technology! Save me from my own lack of discipline and/or ability to exercise it on my progeny!”
You know, at some point we all have got to say, “Stop, I won’t do this anymore” and stop depending on crutches.
Those willey kids will break the code or get smart and remove the key. I would I tore everything apart to see how it worked.
I’ll admit, I’ve been one to text while driving, but only by feel on the keys and only when I’m not in traffic.
Not a teenager, though.
@JohnR
Amen!
@ John R: Noble thought, but do you seriously think discipline comes that easy? Not in today’s society.
For the record – that was the lamest infomercial I’ve ever seen. I hope nobody got paid for what they tried to pass off as “acting.”
Rant aside, texting while driving is bad. There’s enough bad drivers (teens are many of them) on the road today, distractions only make it worse. The insanity has to stop.
I, guilty as charged of having texted in the past, will vow to no longer do it.
It’s possible to use a phone without having Bluetooth switched on, the user can deactivate it on the handset. No Bluetooth, no connectivity to the system, no results.
It’s hard to get a modern phone without Bluetooth. That said, most people don’t have a clue about how it works, let alone how to turn it off or on. Or what it is, quite frankly (I hear a number of people who think “Bluetooth” means “Headset”).
Never mind you’d need to pair it with the phone and hope the phone supports the methods in question. Astute users will just reflash the phone anyways.
But yes, I agree, this is a press release puff-piece. I’d hope TTAC would know better.
If you want to stop people from texting while driving, you need to:
a) Actually have police on the roads pulling people over, not just sitting around with a radar gun, but actually in-traffic. If all you do is sit around and pull a trigger, expect your job to be outsourced to a camera.
b) Be consistent. Don’t do blitzes, enforce it 24×7. And don’t allow it to be plea-bargained down in court.
Any parent will tell you this: consistent, clear enforcement is the only way to get people to behave. Inconsistent enforcement, empty pronouncements and technology-in-lieu-of-involvment are worse than useless.
And what exactly prevents the kid from deleting the Bluetooth partnership between the phone and the device?
I can already see e-bay Farraday cage keychains for 6.99 plus 8.99 shipping.
Yet another utterly useless device. Want to keep your kids from having a texting-related accident? Disable texting on your plan. Actually saves you some cash, and is completely undefeatable. Add a hands-free device and you’re down to one distraction – talking. With that one, you’re on your own, I guess…
That said, most people don’t have a clue about how it works, let alone how to turn it off or on.
Teens are pretty hip with technology. Turning off Bluetooth is a simple function. It’s easier than downloading a ringtone, and is as easy as sending a text message.
If anything, it could make things worse. A lot of people are using Bluetooth in order to use the hands-free functions with their cars or to use wireless earbuds that allow for hands free usage.
If this system operates via Bluetooth and turning it off allows one to avoid it, then you’ll find more people holding phones to their ears, instead of using them handsfree. If you assume that handsfree is better than handheld, then you should oppose this.
Maybe we could just break the kids’ fingers. A bit hard to text when your hand is in a cast…
This won’t work.
Better enforcement with stiffer penalties might. But getting the public and law enforcement to change from Speed / Revenue Focused Enforcement to Safety Focused Enforcement will be tough. Degenerate drivers and their political enablers have influence.
Teens are pretty hip with technology.
Not really, and a common misconception among older folk.
It’s been a while (well, a decade) since I was a help desk analyst, but I do manage one (indirectly) and have to go through call transcripts. Teens and twentysomethings are less afraid to experiment, but they’re still, by and large, pretty helpless. Less so than older folk, but not appreciably.
Teens know how to use Facebook and can use an XT9 keypad faster than I can speak. Can they figure out why their phone won’t pair with their car? Probably not, judging by the call reports I’ve seen.
Turning off Bluetooth is a simple function. It’s easier than downloading a ringtone, and is as easy as sending a text message.
I think you’re overestimating people’s abilities, or underestimating what an utter clusterf_ck BlueTooth really is. If I understand how this works, it needs to pair with the ignition, probably using Bluetooth serial ports. Have you tried to get Bluetooth serial ports working? I have, with severall GPS systems and a few POS units. It isn’t pretty.
Then you get into issues of writing drivers: Windows Mobile is the best of a terrible lot. Symbian is awful for programmers (do Symbian apps actually work?) Blackberry is expensive. iPhones? Riiight…
The RFID option sounds better, but that would require phones to be equipped with RFID radios. I can’t think of many that are, or who would buy one.
Again, this sounds like “If the software works, all the planets are aligned, we can stop people from texting. If they agree to let us stop them.”
Maybe we could just break the kids’ fingers. A bit hard to text when your hand is in a cast…
That would actually work. It’s solve some other problems, too.
Yet another utterly useless device. Want to keep your kids from having a texting-related accident? Disable texting on your plan. Actually saves you some cash, and is completely undefeatable.
Kids can sign up for pay-as-you-go, which means they can get around any restrictions you choose. And heck, not everyone lets you disable texting. It’s a core GSM function; certain providers will never, ever let you unsubscribe.
The Faraday cage idea is a good one. Probably about the only thing that would work. Pity that the kind of cage you’d need would probably block visual light.
I think you’re overestimating people’s abilities, or underestimating what an utter clusterf_ck BlueTooth really is.
On my phone, there is a menu item called “Bluetooth.”
If I go to that menu, it gives me two choices: “On” and “Off.”
Maybe I’m missing something, but that seems remarkably easy to me. Even a Luddite can comprehend “on” and “off.”
If this system operates via Bluetooth and turning it off allows one to avoid it, then you’ll find more people holding phones to their ears, instead of using them handsfree. If you assume that handsfree is better than handheld, then you should oppose this.
Research on this issue, from U Utah, among others, clearly indicates there is no safety advantage to hands-free (also see the new book, Traffic).
Want to keep your kids from having a texting-related accident? Disable texting on your plan
Exactly. What are they texting, anyway?
r u my bff?
No, I’m your bfd, watch the damn road.
John
I’m sorry, but if I had kids and I caught them texting while driving, that would be the end of their cell phone and their driving.
I’m sorry if this insults anyone who has texted while driving, but, it has to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard of people doing while driving.
I mean come on!
But I’m also in my mid-twenties and I’ve never sent a text so I guess I’m in the vast minority.
“awww, mom! You care so much you got a $400 key that doesn’t let me text while it’s open!”
“I guess what I’ll do is one of two things. A, use the spare key for the car that doesn’t look like a Terminator dildo. Or B, turn bluetooth off on my phone.”
this was a great plan!
It really pisses me off that people think parenting remotely via nanny technologies is actually going to teach teenagers anything. A teenager can’t mature if he has no responsibility over himself and his decisions.
If a teenager is an unsafe driver, take away the keys. Only let him/her drive with a parent in the car until it’s gotten through that they were doing something wrong and there are real consequences that try to remedy the real problem: Poor Judgment. I don’t think there is anyone anymore who does not know that texting while driving is extremely unsafe so if someone does text and drive, they have a problem making good judgments. Anyone with poor judgment should not be behind the wheel.
Maybe I’m missing something, but that seems remarkably easy to me. Even a Luddite can comprehend “on” and “off.”
Try pairing the phone. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it says it does but drops out on occasion. Sometimes it should but you find out that the two Bluetooth stacks don’t interoperate because of differences in implementation.
Sometimes you’re in, say, a 2008 BMW 7-Series, and have to deal with the fact that BMW completely omits to mention that a) you need a PIN code and b) what that PIN code might be or c) that the dealer needs to do a forty-minute scan of the on-board computer to reset it. Hot stuff.
Other times you’re using a Windows Mobile handheld. Good luck and god help you.
Again, I’d be impressed if they can get this working. Breaking it should be trivial.
Try pairing the phone. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it says it does but drops out on occasion. Sometimes it should but you find out that the two Bluetooth stacks don’t interoperate because of differences in implementation.
I think that you are missing the point.
If you switch the Bluetooth function on the handset to “off,” the phone will not be using Bluetooth. The phone will not disobey the “off” command, the Bluetooth function stops working.
That does not mean that turning it “on” assures that everything works well. But the issue here is whether turning it off kills the device being touted here.
As far as I can tell, if you turn off the Bluetooth on the phone, the blocker is going to stop working. The teenager can continue to text the day away, without Bluetooth in use.
I think that you are missing the point.
Actually, no. I think we’re just making two different points. Mine is that I don’t think this will work well in the first place. I’d say that this is fundamentally broken for that reason: it’s not a sustainable technology because the foundation is so very shaky.
That it can be turned off is just icing on the cake.
I agree with psarhjinian. You’d think that with the exposure to computers these days, any young person would be a genius with any tech item. But it’s pretty much the opposite, and I think it’ll always be that way. There are people that don’t care to know how things work, and there are those that can’t comprehend it even if they try.
There will always be kids and adults that understand the technology, but they’re in the minority. I currently work as a network admin and also do PC support for a company, and it’s surprising how little people know. They know how to use their iPod and can use their cell phone for music or calling/texting people, but anything besides that is beyond their capabilities.
Whatever happened to the belt?
Teenage drivers should all be driving 1987 Honda Civics that pull to the left and have no shock absorbers left. Any problem related to not paying attention to the road will immediately disappear.
Detroit-Iron : Whatever happened to the belt?
I second that.
(I’m 18, in high school.)
I don’t text while I drive.
I don’t talk on the phone while I drive (or, if I do, it’s a very, very short conversation (under ten seconds)).
I don’t eat while I drive.
I rarely even listen to music while I drive.
Nope. I just drive… Hell, I pay more attention to what’s going on than the policemen do. A cop cut me off on the highway the other day, then parked himself in the left lane at 45 MPH. All the idiots driving around him immediately slowed down, too, since you’re obviously going to get pulled over for doing the speed limit (65 MPH) just because a cop is in the vicinity! Morons.
And I’ve got to agree with the commenter above who said most teens these days are not really very “hip” with technology. I would add to that, however, that most teens aren’t very hip with… much of anything. I deal with the most helpless people these days. They may know how to do things, but they don’t know how to fix things if something goes wrong.
It’s just like in school. They may know how to read (sort of), but they don’t know how to learn. (In my government class, a girl asked me where she could find the answers to a worksheet. The top of the worksheet clearly read “Chapter 14, section 3.” I told her this, but she still didn’t get it. “What page is that?” “I don’t know. Why don’t you find it?” “How?” “Well, gee, you see those chapter and section numbers at the bottom of the page? They change as you turn pages! Find where it says ‘Chapter 14, section 3’. Here, is this it? ‘Chapter 9, section 2’? Nope! Keep going!” I’m not making this up. And after all that, she called me an unhelpful jerk. A jerk!)
I actually wrote a lot more, but this is already very off topic, so I’ve cut out what was after that last paragraph.
Me? Bitter? Nah.
Low power cell phone jammer discretely hidden under a front seat. With an official looking label on it that says its part of the stereo system, in case your target is curious and tech savvy. Illegal as hell in the US, but it would work. And they are available, albeit probably for a greater range than the car interior.