Very interesting article because I think it hits on a topic many of us discuss on a daily basis. I know I drive down the road every day to find people with one hand on the steering wheel, the other on their smart phone and their eyes... well I sure hope they are on the road. According to the National Safety Council, 28% of accidents were attributed to hand held mobile devices in 2008.
There have a been a number of technologies to try to prevent drivers from becoming distracted such as speaker phones, headsets, blue tooth headsets, integration with car speakers, voice recognition, etc. But has that really stopped people from texting and driving? This is a great idea and one I completely agree with for drivers however will people use it? Seems like the focus is on teenagers which would certain help (not eliminate) parent's fear but how will it work for adults that can simply turn it off as soon as they want to send a text? There are a lot of outstanding questions but I feel this is a step in the right direction to hopefully reduce the number of accidents so that we can create a safer environment for everyone.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/sprint-app-shuts-down-drivers-phone/?ref=technology
New technology has made me MORE likely to get distracted while driving, not less. Now that I have a pin number to unlock my phone, I fumble around just to use it. Sure, I try to wait until I am stopped at a red light, but I am not very patient. I know I shouldn't text while driving, eat the extra potato chips, sleep the extra ten minutes...but we are only human
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