Wireless Invention Jams Teen Drivers' Cell Calls 232
alphadogg writes "University of Utah researchers have invented technology that could come to be embraced by teenagers with the same enthusiasm they have for curfews and ID checks. And like those things, it could save their lives. Key2SafeDriving technology uses RFID or Bluetooth wireless capabilities to issue signals from car keys to cell phones to prevent drivers from talking on their phones or texting while driving. A company called Accendo LC of Kaysville, Utah has licensed the technology and is working to build it into commercial devices that could be on the market next year. The company is sorting out how to bring the technology to market, but one possibility is that it would be made available through cell phone service companies and could also be tied in with insurance companies, which might offer discounts for users."
Re:um.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Still prevents anyone in the car from using your phone. And it still allows you to use someone else's phone while driving. This is stupid and too easily defeated.
If this is such a wonderful invention (Score:2, Interesting)
Why not do what r2rknot said and mandate it for everyone? I live at the intersection of 2 roads that each go directly to the main entrance of 3 of the most populous central florida colleges and I find myself shouting "hang up and drive" almost exclusively at people who look to be in their mid 30s at least. Then again it IS a lot easier to just blame everything bad that happens on the road on teens and their terrible teen driving with teen cellphone use and teen teening teenager teen teening teenagers...
It occurs to me that if we stopped doing everything in our power to keep them from getting any experience driving or learning to drive safely that they might actually be better drivers. I can't be the only one that thinks that shite simulators, mandatory "here watch these gory movies" classes that make up drivers ed, and the flailing screaming fits of parents in the passenger seat that pass for practice are counter-productive to the desire for better teen drivers.
Re:Hmm (Score:3, Interesting)
I foresee the sales of tracphone and other pay as you go or prepaid phones increasing.
The teens will just have to remember to not use the unlocked normal phone when calling home.
Re:Title is misleading (Score:3, Interesting)
I just realized, they don't need to make it a Bluetooth device paired to the car key at all. They just need to attach the phone to the key physically so that it can't be in use as a phone when its in the ignition. Tie them together with a short security chain and provide a little place in the dash to put the phone so it isn't hanging from the ignition. Need to answer/make a call or send a text message? You'll have to pull it from the ignition first.
No transmitters, no loss of charge, and you're less likely to lose your phone or your keys; just more likely to lock both your keys and your phone in the car.
Next, include the ability for the parents to send a text message code to the phone to stop the kid's car, and another code to control the door locks. (I could have used that that one time I locked my keys in my car with the lights on, heater on, and engine running in the parking garage.)
Re:911, but not Mom? (Score:4, Interesting)
All it proves is that the elderly turnout on election day dwarfs that of any other age group.
No, come on: you don't think any other age group would stand for the same treatment, do you? If a new study showed that the most dangerous group of drivers were actually, say, 30-40 year olds, you can be sure they wouldn't be banned from the road either.
It's not about turnout among the elderly. It's about young people being disenfranchised. They're discriminated against at every turn because they're powerless to stop it.
You'd think with all of us former teens, still scarred from society's relentless abuse, would rally around the cause of eliminating teenage oppression. But we don't. You know why? Most of us look back at how unbelievably stupid, reckless and irresponsible we were as teenagers. With age, comes some perspective.
That's one theory.
Here's another: most adults don't care about teenage oppression because it isn't their problem anymore. It's easier to just ignore it as soon as you turn 18, or 21, than to keep fighting for a cause that doesn't benefit you personally. Many of them also feel a perverse sense of justice in subjecting the next generation to the same poor treatment that they themselves had to face.