Watch TV On Your Satnav 225
Barence writes "Satnav firm Mio is launching a device with an integrated TV tuner. The Mio Spirit range includes a digital television tuner that is intended to be used 'during breaks in the journey or at their final destination.' However, safety campaigners fear there's little to stop the television being used at the wheel. When the system is first turned on a warning message is displayed, telling the user not to watch television while driving. If this is ignored, a secondary warning message kicks in if the GPS chip detects the vehicle is moving at more than 5mph. But that's it!"
South Korea (Score:1, Insightful)
Similar devices are all over the place in South Korea. There isn't much scarier than weaving through traffic while your cab driver's watching the big game.
That's fine.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Life is like Unix and you are the superuser. With that comes the power to 'rm -rf' the system.. intentionally or not.
--iamnotayam
Nice! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh well, back to reality.
Re:South Korea (Score:3, Insightful)
It makes sense after you see a horrible accident on the high way, look into one of the vehicles in the collision and see their LCD screen displaying The Cooking Channel or something.
Oblig. family guy reference (Score:1, Insightful)
Hummer Jerk: "Dude, this car kicks ass. And I can watch Madagaskar while I'm drivin'!" (looks to onboard tv)
Lion: "What kind of music do you like, Gloria?"
Hippo: "Hippo-Hop! Yeah baby!" (music kicks in)
Hummer Jerk: "Hahaha, those animals are so fucking funny, they wanna make me merge without looking! YEAH! RUMSFELD!"
http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l89/blackh3/?action=view¤t=fg-hummer.flv [photobucket.com]
Re:First post? (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess would be because they're fucking morons.
Re:Speed Interlock Override (Score:3, Insightful)
Even the current GPS units/DVD players can easily be defeated. In most cases, all you need to do is ground one of the pins in the connector, and it always thinks you are parked.
I've heard some people who want a GPS/DVD player with the GPS functions disabled take the even more nefarious route of just buying a DVD player :-)
Re:That's fine.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Life is like Unix and you are the superuser. With that comes the power to 'rm -rf' the system.. intentionally or not.
--iamnotayam
Nobody really cares if the driver kills himself while being terminally stupid. The problem is that they tend to take other people with them, people who did not have any part in their idiot choices. Your right to watch TV while driving does not override other people's right to live.
Great (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:That's fine.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people should not be allowed to have root access sometimes.
Re:TV while drivin is Darwin Award worthy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly what I was thinking - there's a use case where you know your route but only want to carry one device and so entertain the other passengers by using it as the TV rather than using the SatNav (which you may need later) as a navigation device.
Yeah, people watching TV while driving is a problem, but there are far more prevalent problems that'll cause just as many accidents: people doing 100Mph+ on Motorways with warnings of queuing ahead, people not indicating, people on mobile phones, etc.
It's called... (Score:5, Insightful)
wreckless driving, and it shouldn't be tolerated. Shouldn't anyone watching TV while driving lose their license?
Not acceptable (Score:2, Insightful)
Presumably all the people who find this acceptable would have no problem if the surgeon putting them back together after they crash watches TV whilst doing the surgery.
And A Dollar Short (Score:4, Insightful)
"... safety campaigners fear there's little to stop the television being used at the wheel."
When the original version of The Andromeda Strain aired on TV circa 1971, I packed a 12" B&W Zenith portable with a 12 V DC car cigarette lighter adapter into a friend's car and we set out watching it. He made it 2 blocks before hitting a curb. I tried and made it 1 block before doing the same. We then parked and watched the rest.
So they're right to be alarmed. They're just several decades late. But then, we knew it was stupid to try it. I suspect far more people these days wouldn't realize that unless the TV told them, and then many would still ignore it. I'd wish for natural selection to take its course with them, except it might do so head on with someone not deserving of the same fate.
Re:That's fine.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Your personal responsibility should be limited to your net worth. Otherwise, it's not your personal responsibility, but someone elses (whoever has to eat the difference between what you and your insurance are able to pay and the actual damage you caused).
ATSC (Score:4, Insightful)
Isn't one of the drawbacks of an ATSC digital signal that it's difficult to maintain a lock on it while you're in motion? They're advertising it as something to do once you arrive in your destination, so its not like people haven't been warned about the realities of the situation
My World and Welcome to It (Score:3, Insightful)
Because if only we could prevent this one particular stupid thing people can do while driving we will eliminate all driving-related injuries and deaths.
Every little bit helps.
But I can't help wondering why the multi-tasking geek always trots out this excuse for inaction.
It's a patently false dilemma.
We can do other things while we do this one thing.
Re:TV while drivin is Darwin Award worthy... (Score:3, Insightful)
Whatever happened to sitting in the back shutting the fuck up and feeling miserable? I miss those days.
Obligitory bash quote (Score:1, Insightful)
http://bash.org/?195969 [bash.org]