Mobile phones and driving - should this happen in NZ?

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Geektastic

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#207345 20-Dec-2016 09:55

From today's London Telegraph. Do you think we should adopt the same sort of thing here? I see drivers on phones almost every day of the week.

(Note for clarity - in the UK, you lose your licence on 12 points, not 100, so the 6 points referred to equates to 50 here and the fine equates to NZ$400 approx)

"Drivers could be blocked from using their mobile phone in the car amid plans being drawn up by ministers and technology companies to cut the number of fatalities on British roads.

The Department for Transport will meet handset manufacturers and network providers in January to thrash out proposals to prevent people from texting and making calls at the wheel as part of a tough new crackdown.

Plans to use GPS technology to blocks calls and messages as soon as a driver reaches a certain speed are understood to be on the table, as well as the introduction of a drive safe mode, similar to the existing airplane mode, which could be installed on phones in the factory.
Ministers are working on the tough new rules as part of a broader plan to curb road deaths related to mobile phone use.

It follows an announcement earlier this year to double the fixed penalty for using a mobile phone while driving to £200 and increasing the penalty notice from three to six points for the crime."

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#1692605 20-Dec-2016 10:03

How would it tell it was the driver and not a passenger on their phone?

jamesrt

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#1692612 20-Dec-2016 10:16

DarthKermit: How would it tell it was the driver and not a passenger on their phone?

Clearly they're going to link the system into a national-wide network of traffic cameras, which can check who's using the phone via an AI.

I, for one, welcome our new SkyNet Overlords. :-)

shk292

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#1692709 20-Dec-2016 11:12

DarthKermit:

How would it tell it was the driver and not a passenger on their phone?

I don't see how they could tell. Ditto for bus, taxi and train passengers. That makes it a really bad idea

Some simple enforcement and strong penalties would go a long way to fixing this problem in NZ. I see 2-5 drivers obviously using their phones in moving traffic every day on my commute - surely a small team of cops in plain cars could do the same and the message would quickly spread,

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#1692713 20-Dec-2016 11:17

DarthKermit:

How would it tell it was the driver and not a passenger on their phone?

Exactly this...

Oh, i need to make a phonecall, stopt he bus.

That would go down well in peak hour!

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KiwiME

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#1692770 20-Dec-2016 12:09

Why would anyone imagine that the designers of such technology would not take account of such a simple shortfall?

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#1692772 20-Dec-2016 12:11

KiwiME:

Why would anyone imagine that the designers of such technology would not take account of such a simple shortfall?

but the safety it provides! who cares about the rest?

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k1w1k1d

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#1692780 20-Dec-2016 12:26

I get quite a bit of flak at work for not setting up hands free phone use in my company vehicle. I think I am one of the few without it.

My reasoning is that as most of my calls are of a technical nature, I can't safely drive and talk on the phone at the same time.

I often wonder how many other drivers using hands free are actually giving enough attention to driving?

Wade

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#1692786 20-Dec-2016 12:50

I would say having a handsfree convo in my car is a lot less distracting then driving around with my wife and two young children chatting/arguing/watching phones/ipads etc

The car load become quiet during calls so possibly i'm safer when on a call

shk292

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#1692788 20-Dec-2016 13:12

Wade:

I would say having a handsfree convo in my car is a lot less distracting then driving around with my wife and two young children chatting/arguing/watching phones/ipads etc

The car load become quiet during calls so possibly i'm safer when on a call

I'd agree. I consider myself more than capable of driving a car and having a phone conversation on hands free at the same time, in the same way that I can fly a plane and use a radio at the same time.

scuwp

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#1692872 20-Dec-2016 14:52

The science of attention distraction via phone conversations vs car occupants conversations is well established. The fact is holding onto a phone and using hands free results is similar cognitive problems. The former is just easier to Police and a little more politically palatable.

The proposed new law is frought with problems to implement. I doubt it will ever get off the ground.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

scuwp

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#1692875 20-Dec-2016 14:59

shk292:
Wade:

I would say having a handsfree convo in my car is a lot less distracting then driving around with my wife and two young children chatting/arguing/watching phones/ipads etc

The car load become quiet during calls so possibly i'm safer when on a call

I'd agree. I consider myself more than capable of driving a car and having a phone conversation on hands free at the same time, in the same way that I can fly a plane and use a radio at the same time.

That's not comparing apples with apples. If you think your brain attention processing doesn't change when involved in a phone conversation your wrong. That's the biggest problem with regulating phone use, people don't appreciate or understand the impact it has. Also planes rarely fly in such close proximity to each other that a split second makes all the difference, nor do they have a 'road' to stay on. The margin for error in a plane for a collision is huge. A few feet one way or the other means very little other than a minor course deviation. Studies have also looked at RT conversations and found marked differences when compared to mobile phone use.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

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shk292

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#1692880 20-Dec-2016 15:08

scuwp:

That's not comparing apples with apples. If you think your brain attention processing doesn't change when involved in a phone conversation your wrong. That's the biggest problem with regulating phone use, people don't appreciate or understand the impact it has. Also planes rarely fly in such close proximity to each other that a split second makes all the difference, nor do they have a 'road' to stay on. The margin for error in a plane for a collision is huge. A few feet one way or the other means very little other than a minor course deviation. Studies have also looked at RT conversations and found marked differences when compared to mobile phone use.

All valid points, but I still think it is unrealistic to expect or require a driver to devote 100% of concentration to driving 100% of the time. Otherwise we'd need to ban kids, animals, cigarettes, ICE and a whole lot of other things from vehicles, or ensure complete separation from the driver. IMHO, allowing hands-free voice calls is a reasonable compromise between safety and freedom

richms

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#1692882 20-Dec-2016 15:13

Locking things out on a phone is absurd. This should never happen.

The problem with all the car based systems is they seem to be stuck years in the past even when new, so on a few year old car they are prettymuch useless. Friend has a car that will load his phonebook from his phone onto it, so that you can call/sms people from the phonebook. It only works with the phonebook, not any messaging apps that people tend to use instead of SMS and native calling nowdays. So still have to use the phone to initiate the call or type the whatsapp message.

Same for music control. The can only works with the stock music player app, the one that plays songs stored on the phone rather than any streaming services etc. It can do next/previous track if you manually open spotify and start stuff, but again its pretty useless for how people actually use a device.

Perhaps if they put some effort into getting things that people actually do on devices then it might help. Most the time that people harp on about seeing people texting on a phone while driving there would be no SMS involved, it would be something else on the device.

Richard rich.ms

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#1692910 20-Dec-2016 16:49

I would not assume that they are concerned about whether passengers can use their phones.

Shocking as this may be to anyone under about 30, there was a time when you could not make calls in cars..! Perhaps we will be returning to that state. I for one certainly wouldn't mind if you could not use them on trains.

Perhaps it will disable voice calls or something rather than data, on the basis that something is better than nothing.

At least they are hitting the miscreants with a big stick, unlike here where you get a pathetically small fine.

As far as cameras go, that might well be possible given the vast network of speed cameras and so on in the UK. They already take a photo of the driver for ID in speeding cases, so if they have a system that identifies cellphones being used as the car approaches the camera, then maybe they could snap you at it!

Certainly we need to do something here - and a fine and points which actually hurt would be a start.

I'm surprised that so many do it in the UK because there would be an additional penalty not present here - since insurance is compulsory there, so is declaring any infringements and/or points when you renew, and your annual premium will certainly be increased as a result.

shk292

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#1692921 20-Dec-2016 17:01

There are so many restrictions on driving in the UK, and I would hate NZ to follow. I remember the well publicised case of a driver getting a hefty fine for drinking out of a water bottle while stopped at a red light - WTF? Then there is the almost insurmountable insurance hassle if you want to borrow a car or let someone drive yours. I'm in favour of compulsory insurance but not if it leads to the sort of loss of liberty you see in UK

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