United States: National Transportation Safety Board Wants To Ban Phones In Cars
Added on: Dec 20, 2011
The americans over at NTSB want to make mobile phones unusable behind the wheel. Auto constructors will have to adapt their systems for the U.S. market.
If The National Transportation Safety Board plan becomes a reality, using the mobile phone behind the wheel will become history, at least in the United States. NTSB officials asked the 50 states to implement this interdiction as soon as possible. The new project bans the use of mobile phones behind the wheel. Basically, if a driver has a Bluetooth or handsfree system, the new law would not allow it's use.
Auto builders like Ford, Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Chrysler, General Motors, Toyota and others developed systems to allow drivers to talk using hands free, and the new NTSB project might obligate them to modify their systems for the U.S. market. The Board asks the help of telecommunication industry to develop a technology to disable the phone of a driver once the vehicle is moving. Auto builders invested millions of dollars in integrating smartphones in vehicles, and the new NTSB project would be a disaster for them.
NTSB says that they have investigated many auto accidents and that the driver can be distracted in many ways, not only by manipulating a object of presenting a visual object. A voice call represents the distraction of cognitive attention, which means that the driver will not focus on driving, but on the call. Auto constructors will have to spend millions of dollars to comply with the NTSB directive, because this requires programming the multimedia equipments that integrate these features.
Telecommunications suppliers are also not going to be happy because they committed to deliver a service and they might block the calls of some passengers. Ford already replied to the NTSB initiative and said that the new multimedia systems, like Sync, significantly reduces risks behind the wheel when the driver starts a vocal call by the fact that the driver keeps hands on the wheel and eyes on the road.
