PLEASE take advantage of the technology you have NOW!

I have been a victim of a distracted driver. I was rear-ended by an SUV driver, who was so busy texting, he didn’t notice the cars, on the freeway ahead of him, were all completely stopped. As he approached, and I could see that he wasn’t looking up, I honestly thought I was about to be killed.

Daily, during my commute, I will find myself caught behind someone going well below posted speeds, with a large gap between their vehicle and the next one ahead. When I pass them, I look over to see what the issue is, only to see the driver holding their smartphone up, in front of their face, reading or texting.

Occasionally, I will be behind a vehicle that is weaving from side to side, in their lane (and sometimes, outside it!). Drunk driver? No. Another person playing with their smartphone.

Once, while on a very high freeway interchange, I passed a car, whose driver had a large book open, on their car’s steering wheel! She was reading a book, while changing freeways at 60+ miles per hour!

I have had drivers almost change lanes, right into my lane (and my Volt), because they were holding their phone, up to their ear, and it was blocking their view and preventing them from effectively checking their blind spots, before the lane change. (and of course, with one hand on the steering wheel and one holding the phone, they didn’t turn on their turn signal…)

What bothers me the most about this reckless behavior is two-fold:

• The distracted drivers are risking the lives of the drivers around them (including mine), and
• There are easy fixes for the distractions, that have been around for years.

First, the safety issue: People don’t seem to realize how heavy vehicles are. According to an article, by Annie Lowery, on Slate.com, “The average new car weighed 3,221 pounds in 1987 but 4,009 pounds in 2010.” The 2017 Chevy Volt weighs in at 3,543 lbs. Remembering a little physics, Momentum = Mass X Velocity, a Volt going 60 miles per hour (88 feet per second), has a momentum of 311,784 lb/ft and that doesn’t include the mass of the passengers, gasoline, etc.! Airbags, seat belts and crumple zones in vehicles reduce the impact force by increasing deceleration distance, but you get the idea…

When driving, we are controlling an incredibly deadly force, but the average driver doesn’t seem to consider the responsibility this entails.

What are the “fixes” I speak of?

• A simple plug-in earpiece for your mobile phone helps. Most (if not all) smartphones today, come with a headphone. IT’S FREE. USE IT! It keeps the phone out of your hand and away from your head, where it blocks your vision.
• You don’t like being attached to your phone by a cable? Bluetooth headsets are available and are inexpensive (at the lower end).
• My first Volt (2012 model year) had Bluetooth capability, allowing me to pass audio from phone calls, music, navigation instructions and more, via Bluetooth to my car’s audio system.
• Many smartphones today have the ability to be controlled by voice command, like Siri on the iPhone. Even back in 2012, the things I could do by voice command were amazing.
• Many vehicles made in the last few years have the ability to instigate voice commands, to the car and/or smartphone, with a button push on the steering wheel. I demonstrated this capability in my 2012 Volt and it has gotten MUCH easier to do, as the voice control interface developed, in the intervening years. I have done these things while driving, by simply pressing a button on my car’s steering wheel and issuing a voice command, which the car passed on, to my iPhone:
  • Dictate outgoing text message (or reply to one I received),
  • Have a received text message read to me,
  • Get turn-by-turn driving directions,
  • Call anyone in my iPhone’s Address Book or any phone number I dictate,
  • Add appointments to my calendar,
  • Update my Facebook status,
  • Have an audiobook read to me,
  • Play songs by artist, playlist, album, title, genre, etc,
• Very recent vehicles may also have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto available. This new interface allows properly equipped smartphones to display icons and maps on the vehicle’s infotainment system screen, as well as enable voice control access to the apps displayed. In my case, Apple CarPlay has improved over the Bluetooth interface, by doing everything I could do before, as well as the ability for me to get turn-by-turn directions (while being able to see the map and traffic displayed on the infotainment screen).
• I know most recent Chevrolet vehicles even have the ability to control radio tuning and navigation routing, via voice command to the car.

With all these solutions available, why on Earth is anyone texting or having a phone conversation, with their phone in their hand, placing those around them at risk???

I honestly cannot understand this.