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Prevention is easier than the Cure?

by Greg Myers on Oct 15th, 2008 at 3:22 am EST
10 Comments »
 

Slashdot aired this little beauty earlier today and I thought it was timely in respect to the article written here yesterday.

This really says to me; “Well hell, if fines and/or laws won’t stop people texting or taking phone calls whilst driving, then the software developers will”.

It was only really a matter of time before something like this was introduced and rest assured the insurance companies will jump on the bandwagon fairly soon and make this type of thing mandatory. Deprivation of liberty or downright big brother taking a further step??? Feel free to sound off in the comments section.

Quoted from Slashdot:“Canadian company Aegis Mobility has developed software that detects if a cell phone is moving at ‘car’ speeds. If so, the software, DriveAssistT, will alert the cellular network, telling it to hold calls and text messages until the drive is over. Calls are not blocked entirely; callers will be notified that the person appears to be driving, but they can still leave an emergency voice mail, which will be sent through immediately.”

Thank you, Slashdot, for the material on this one, and for those of you who want to investigate further, just click here.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 and is filed under News, Rant.
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10 Comments to “Prevention is easier than the Cure?”

  1. Posted by: RedNightHawk
    October 15, 2008 at 3:44 am EST

    Initially, this seems like a good idea. I can understand no incoming calls to distract from drivng. Then I start to wonder about things like if you can still make outgoing calls. If someone’s being chased by some road rage psycho, or sees a drunk driver, do they have to pull over to make a call?

    There’s also no way for it to detect if you’re a passenger and not the driver, or for that matter a passenger on an intercity bus or something (if you’ve ever been on those you know lots of people make and take calls to pass the time).

  2. Posted by: Kristy
    October 15, 2008 at 3:46 am EST

    So, my question is.. If I’m in a car, not driving, MY phone’s not going to work. If I’m on a bus, my phone won’t work. Seems like there’s a flaw, because someones missing out on the phone. What if your lost, and someone else is going to call?

  3. Posted by: disciples0
    October 15, 2008 at 5:20 am EST

    Socialism/Communism has really become pervasive during the past 50 years. And the clowns LOVE to control. If I were to find garbage such as this in any vehicle that I may subsequently own, I give you my word that I’ll tear it out and take a sledge hammer to it.

  4. Posted by: DavidB
    October 15, 2008 at 8:04 am EST

    So if I’m kidnapped and locked in the trunk but have my phone, I can’t call/text for help? My kids in the back seat can’t make calls or text? Hmmm, I can see negatives and positives all around.

  5. Posted by: Canson
    October 15, 2008 at 9:48 am EST

    where theres a will theres a way. if they develop it we can create software to disable it. i do disagree because as posted above, what if your on the bus or metro?

  6. Posted by: heelntoe
    October 15, 2008 at 11:20 am EST

    I agree with disabling while driving…but the part I have issue with is “this person appears to be driving”…what if I don’t want someone to know that I’m driving? Or en-route? Or stopped driving? It leads to interpretation as to my whereabouts. Some people, for many reasons, may have issue with this.

  7. Posted by: Corrina
    October 15, 2008 at 4:36 pm EST

    I’m not sure how I feel about that. I spend a lot of time at red lights- long ones- and I do read and respond to texts when I’m sitting there. So if my car is moving at “car speed”, then nothing comes through but will they if I’m stopped at a light? How can they turn that off and on so fast?

    DavidB makes an excellent point too.

    I also wouldn’t want my callers to be notified when I’m driving. I’m agreeing with “heelntoe” on that aspect of it.

  8. Posted by: Luciano ES
    October 15, 2008 at 5:26 pm EST

    I think we can all agree that the idea is doomed. ;-)

  9. Posted by: haephaestus
    October 15, 2008 at 7:55 pm EST

    What’s the saying? Make something idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot? There’s just no technological replacement for conscience, common sense, and just thinking about what you are doing before doing it.