Car Tech forum: Are you for or against GPS and cell phones in cars?

I'd rather see someone with a beer in their hand than a cell phone. You use more of your brain focusing on conversation. And conversation on the phone is more neuron draining than talking to a person in the vehicle.

If and when cars incorporate them as handsfree into the system, I will then feel much safer. Right now it's not cost effective for all car owners. Hopefully, it will be like all new technology eventually is. Currently though, it's pretty scary that most of the rude or wreckless driving usually involves the driver holding a cell phone. I haven't noticed it with the GPS but that's probably because you can't visually see it in their hands.

As a real estate agent, obviously I am mostly DEFINITELY FOR both of these wonderful inventions in cars. I use them both, extensively, and wonder how I ever did my job without them. They are truly two of most wonderful additions to a real estate's working tools since the invention of the MLS. I never leave my office without both of these items.

Coming up with the "simple solution" like banning cell phones in cars will create a myriad of peripheral actions/problems such as quickly reporting a fatality (or accident with serious injuries requiring immediate attention by professionals), preventing a fatality (such as a suicide jumper on an over crossing), and even saving your own life such as if you're stranded or lost in a desolate location without the ability to survive a sudden snowstorm. Would anyone consider NOT using a cell phone under these circumstances? Better yet, would LAW ENFORCEMENT and other emergency personnel not WANT you to use a cell phone these circumstances? Nope. Daily, we hear about people who called in a problem with a cell phone, took a picture with a cell phone, or just left a cell phone on during an emergency when they couldn't actually talk into it.

I have my personal cell phone and use it for conversations only in the most important of circumstances - not just while driving. But when I use it, I NEED to use it and not having or using it will simply force me to drive on and probably not get off the road to find a (hopefully working!) pay phone - something I do NOT recommend for single women at night in strange neighbourhood, ya know? I even have a second cell phone that is not activated; it doesn't have a phone number in service. But using it for 911 works regardless of any other factors than signal and power. This is an example of how important emergency services consider the usage of cell phones: they don't even give a damn if a carrier gets paid for the airtime.

The article both hit the mark and missed the target. The problem is distracted drivers AND dumb-as-dirt drivers. Anyone can become distracted while driving and it has nothing whatsoever to do with a cell phone. Case in point, I was driving safely in a line of traffic when a doe decided to cross the highway in front of me. Needless to say, I was distracted from driving within my lane and suddenly panic braking, as I've never hit anything alive before. In the end, the panic braking didn't cause a massive pile-up and my anti-lock brakes made my swerve less than effective for avoiding the deer that I think I killed. What could have been done to avoid this distraction from safe driving? Nada.

However, the article also mentioned dumbasses that could actually follow a GPS instead of looking out the freaking windshield to avoid an impassable situation. No amount of distraction will harm people like these; they are already beyond distraction and are living in some inane fantasy world where only one thing at a time exists: their selves. You could ban detours and they'd miss them, ban running over burning tar and they'd miss it, ban stopping and gawking at accidents and they'd stop and gawk anyway. To lump these sorry examples in with drivers who are notifying police of a kid dropping rocks onto windshields from overpasses by using a cell phone is ridiculous.

In the end, every single thing inside and outside of YOURSELF can become a distraction to you and distract you from anything else you are doing. Even if you're the best multi-tasker ever born, triaging varying degrees of attention from situation to situation requires time for the human mind to process - time you may not have available. So there's nothing to be done for prevention of distracted drivers other than removing them from vehicles if they prove too easily distracted. And the only way to do that would be to test them ALL regularly, just like police are tested when using a weapon, to be reasonably sure they could make a good decision as quickly as possible. Pass the test, you're free to drive with the tools available to you such as cell phones, passengers and open Pepsi bottles.

The thing that always makes me smile when driving is seeing someone's mouth moving in another car. Are they singing? Are they talking to themselves? Are they arguing with Rush Limbaugh in a talk show? Are they reciting the speech they are about to give a group of high school grads? Or are they talking on a hands-free device? If I were a cop, how would I choose which talker to pull over to see IF he or she was illegally using a cell phone while driving? If the universe had enough cops to check all of those talkers out there wouldn't be room for talkers driving. Oh, wait. Someone needs to ban all police from having cell phones, OK? Thanks!

I see no problems with phones in cars, as I see it it is the "Nut behind the wheel" that causes accidents. If you do not know that the phone is for emergencegies rather than gossip or doing business while you are driving you are the bad NUT. Gadgets are added to make cars more expensive, only when they reduce the gas consumption, and add to the safety of the passengers are they useful. This is my opinion and I have been driving for nearly 60 years, with only one accident.

Gps, cellphones, and new devices can make driving safer:but only if control of them is taken out of the hands of the driver. Bad drivers misuse the equipment they have available and will always be unsafe drivers if they choose to. The only way to make some drivers safe on the roads is to take them out of the drivers seat.

There is a reasonable solution to all of this. Just open season on dumb drivers. Just like the deer population, they would be controlled and only the smart would survive. During the time we lost 3000 in Iraq, we lost over 50,000 to drunk drivers right here in our own back yard, therefore drunk drivers are much more dangerous than terrorists. The people that are killed due to talking on the cell phone are miniscule compared to those killed due to drunk drivers, so it would seem that we are debating the wrong issue. What is wrong with this picture? It would be like swatting flies when your house is full of rattlesnakes, you are focusing on the wrong thing. Just goes to show that all the idiots are not talking on cell phones while driving, some of them are posting messages on forums.

Most of us forget, or have no clue to begin with, what 3/4 to 2 tons of metal moving at even slow speeds can do. As a result, we pay relatively little attention to our driving as it is. To add to the distractions is to add to the danger. I would be in favor of disabling GPS and/or cell phones in cars unless they are stopped. Absent legal restraints, I ask all of us, on our own, to stop the car before using GPS or cell phone. If you need to figure out where you are, get off the highway or pull off to the side and concentrate on finding out where you are and how to get where you're going.

True there are dangerous aggressive drivers out there, but my experience shows me that the WORST ones are the PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE drivers. Those that stubbornly adhere to the wrong lane at the wrong speed; i.e. they don't stick to the right lanes unless passing. And of course, the ones you referred to: those that will speed up once you signal to come into their lane.

These PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE drivers probably cause MORE death by increasing stress on good drivers who just want to get from point-A to point-B safely in the least amount of time. THEY DRIVE GOOD DRIVERS TO DRINK!!

You have seen them on the news; but, unless you have been through a "White Out" condition, you are totally clueless. In February of 2007, we needed to go to NW Wisconsin near the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. We literally drove through a blizzard far in excess of 20" Plus of snow: Total White Out Conditions! We would have no clue as to our location were it not for the GPS; and the cell phone meant we could call for help. The GPS notified us that we were on the road, even though there was no visibility. When we finally arrived, several hours late, to our destination, our host said, "I can't believe you made it through this storm?" You want a reason for GPS? How about: SAVING YOUR LIFE!

Just face it; our precious freedoms mean death, or physical or mental trauma, for somebody else.

The freedom to drive a vehicle with distractions leads to more collisions (I prefer not to call them accidents) - people die.

The freedom to believe in the various forms of socially controlling mythology perpetuates secret organizations that sexually abuse our children and hide the individual perpetrators.

The freedom to vote leads to giving awesome power to a man who kills half a million people to regain his daddy's honor.

The freedom to bear arms .....

Ok, cynicism aside there is no doubt that the freedom to use a mobile phone in a moving vehicle will lead to more deaths than not - and for most of us a telephone conversation - even hands free - impacts our abilities more than an in-car conversation - and a large part of this is because our passengers know when to talk about complex subjects and when to remain silent or just make casual small talk - the person at the other end of the phone doesn't have this insight or sensitivity.

Allow it or don't allow it - just don't deny the basic balance - my freedoms may be your death ..... and your freedoms may be mine.

People can tune out a radio in a car to pay attention to the road. People talk to passengers in a car. Of course the benefit is that the passenger can also be aware of the traffic conditions/attention of the driver (except small children - shall we ban them from cars?).

I think that making it easier to operate a phone in the car would be a huge plus and the person taking the call should make the caller he is speaking with aware that he is on the road so that the driver can feel free to delay in responding or request a repeat if a driving situation requires complete attention.

Rarely does anyone truly give complete attention to driving, I am betting, since most usually mull over various thoughts anyways which are not related to the driving at hand.

Devices that make it easier for people to devote more of their attention to the road and less to other things are a plus. But I suspect these things will only be in higher end/expensive vehicles, (like on-star etc etc are), so its moot anyways.

My ex-husband who is a tech professional always tried to read computer magazines on long trips in the car and angrily refused my repeated requests to do the driving! Once he took out some orange barrels in a construction area and came close to running up the concrete divider while reading his magazine and fiddling with the radio! I am so glad I don't ride in a car with him anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Driving a car under normal circumstances with the problem of inattentive drivers takes complete concentration on my part to avoid collisions etc.
The radio can even become a distraction at times and I'm not trying to carry on a conversation with it or see if the GPS mapping is correct. My gut feeling is that if the car manufacturers were held responsible for the wrecks and deaths caused by distracted drivers all these wonderful gadgets would disappear from cars, but we all know that will never happen. The simplest and best answer, is to pull out of traffic and take the call or read the map obviously reducing the risk to your life, the lives of your family members and those in the car with which you might collide.
P.S. Cellphones should be banned from theaters and restaurants because I want to 'injure' their inconsiderate owners. Just tell me "WHAT" is so important it can't wait for a hour or two?????

Make cel phone use, in other than an emergency situation, a felony just as DUI. Hopefully when the novelty wears off(as it did with CBs) and these egocentric showoffs stop demonstrating their stupidity the roads will be safer for all of us.
Proper GPS use, that is programming only when standing still, will save lives. Helping drivers to anticipate turns and telling them what lane to be in should prevent erractic sudden moves.
Victor

Now that the writer has displayed his egocentric side lets get back to the real issue - do you want some idiot with a cel phone in one hand and a lethal weapon in the other to have the ability to kill you???