Controversial opinion #2: Your phone and your car

This may be a bit harsh, so if you’re easily offended, you may just want to scroll past this post…

To paraphrase comedian Jeff Foxworthy, You may be a complete ?, if:

• You hold your mobile phone up to your ear or face, while driving.
• You send or read text messages, while driving.
• You touch your phone, while driving.
• You’re a legislator and do not create laws to make the above activities illegal.
• You’re a law enforcement official and ignore people doing one of the first three items in this list.

It has been fifteen years, since the first car with Bluetooth capabilities arrived on the market. It was a 2003 Saab. Bluetooth in cars predates the iPhone debut by four years! It is now ubiquitous, as are smartphones. Yes, I have a very few acquaintances who still use a flip phone, but most people (even my 79 year old mother) now have a smartphone. Also, most flip phones have Bluetooth capabilities.

In today’s smartphones, voice control has been around for about 7 years.

Apple CarPlay has been around for four years.

Android Auto has been around for three years.

These are not new technologies. They are not difficult to use.

The cost of not using these assistive technologies, while driving, is very high. In 2013 alone, 341,000 motor vehicle crashes involved texting while driving. 33% of U.S. drivers (age 18 to 64) reported texting while driving. 46 U.S. states and territories have laws banning texting for all drivers. Still, it’s an epidemic, in the U.S.

Today, if I see a vehicle drifting around in their lane, like a drunk, I expect to see the driver holding up their mobile phone, as they drive. Every day, in heavy traffic, if I’m caught behind a vehicle traveling well below the speed limit, leaving a huge gap ahead of their vehicle, I expect to see the driver holding his or her phone and looking at it. When I finally get around them, I am so tempted to gesture my frustration ? to them, as I pass. I have observed drivers, traveling 65 miles per hour, glancing up, for about a half second to check traffic around them, every five seconds or so. At that speed, it is like driving with your eyes closed, for a distance of 477 feet! That’s over the length of 1-1/2 football fields!!!

I have had a car totaled by a man, driving an enormous SUV, who was texting and looking away from the road, when he collided with my car. That day, I honestly thought I was about to die. There was no way out for me. All I could think of, as he hurtled toward me, was, “This is a stupid way to die!” Fortunately, I survived and went on to get my first plug-in vehicle, due to very high gasoline prices. Oddly, if not for that accident, you probably would not be reading my blog right now. I guess the aphorism is true: “Every cloud has a silver lining…”

What blows my mind, about holding your phone while driving, is the total lack of respect it shows, toward every other driver on the road. When operating a vehicle, at freeway speeds, you are basically guiding a hurtling ton (or tons) of metal, right next to other drivers, who are doing the same. Impacts at these speeds are life-threatening. How DARE you value our lives less than your trivial message! Your arrogance astounds and disgusts me.

In Austin, the capitol of Texas, a law was passed, making texting while driving illegal. That didn’t work, since drivers could say they were a) making a phone call, b) looking at a route on their map, c) doing anything other than texting. In September 2017, Texas lawmakers passed a statewide law to address this issue. In Texas:

• Drivers cannot send or receive electronic messages.
• Drivers with learner’s permits are prohibited from using handheld cell phones in the first six months of driving.
• Drivers under the age of 18 are prohibited from using wireless communications devices.
• School bus operators are prohibited from using cell phones while driving if children are present.
• In school zones, all drivers are prohibited from texting and using handheld devices while driving. (This one seems to be the only one enforced and people, almost universally, obey it.)
• Since 2009, more than 90 cities have adopted one or more ordinances that address cell phone usage while driving.

Still, every day, I see people watching video, texting, reading or holding their phone in front of their face. I never see law enforcement activity around these behaviors, unless an accident has already occurred.

Technology has become an addiction for us. To be realistic, people are going to continue to be tempted by their mobile devices and, although it goes against state law, there are things that can be done to reduce the risk to yourself and the drivers around you. Here are a few:

• Pull off the road and park, to use your phone. (Yeah, I know you’re not going to do this, but I had to put it in this list.)
• Activate “Hey Siri” or “Hey Google” on your smartphone, to control your phone by voice command and never, ever touch your phone, while driving).
• Set up a Bluetooth connection between your mobile device and your vehicle. It’s easy to do and only has to be done once. Once set up, your device will automatically connect, when you start your car with your device inside.
• Connect your mobile device, by USB cable, to your vehicle. This will keep your phone charged and allow the use of Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to control your device and display your devices maps on the vehicle’s infotainment screen, just like having navigation, built-in (except the maps get updated without you paying an extra fee!).
• Learn to use the voice commands supported by your mobile device.

Back, in 2012, I could use the cumbersome voice commands available back then to do everything I can do today, even though I only had a Bluetooth connection. Today, voice control of devices is much more sophisticated and easy to use. I have Apple CarPlay in my 2017 Chevy Volt and can use it to do all these things with my iPhone:

• Play music through my Volt’s stereo (by album, artist, playlist or song name).
• Get driving directions (taking current traffic conditions into account automatically).
• Make outgoing phone calls or answer incoming calls.
• Display my driving route, current location and traffic on the Volt’s infotainment screen.
• Dictate outgoing text messages.
• Have the device read a received text message to me.
• Add appointments to my iPhone’s calendar, specifying date, time and subject.
• Update my Facebook status.

There’s probably even more I could do, using voice commands, but the list above is more than enough to satisfy most driver’s urgent (and not-so-urgent) needs.

It’s easy to become a better human. Connect your device to your car (physically or wirelessly). Enable voice control of the device. Practice giving the device commands while you’re not driving.