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!"
First post? (Score:2)
Re:First post? (Score:5, Interesting)
I always thought that warning messages were more likely to get you killed in the 0.05s you spend pressing "ok" when you could have done the one thing you wanted to do.
They'd be more effective to only let you use the TV in "radio mode", e.g. no video to distract you from the road.
I want a GPS that blanks out white (Score:2, Funny)
and begins muttering rosaries, as the unit detects I'm hitting 90 mph.
Re:First post? (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using TV-enabled satnavs here in Japan for many years. The law forces dealers to make the TV switch off when the car is moving.
However most 3rd party fitters will bypass this restriction, and it's fairly common to see asshats driving round with the TV fully on.
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Nothing new to see here...?
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Indeed. My in-dash navigation system often pops up warnings telling me that the map information hasn't been verified for the area that I'm in... covering up the map in doing so.. requiring me to press OK on the touch screen or wait 30 seconds.. which is about 10x longer than it needs to be there.
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Why don't they use an audio message instead? That's not only safer, but also sounds a lot more effective as a warning.
Re:First post? (Score:4, Insightful)
My guess would be because they're fucking morons.
Re:First post? (Score:5, Funny)
Those poor morons...
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Because it's pretty ineffective when you've got the music turned up?
I've pretty much disabled all voice functionality on my GPS because I can't hear it half the time anyway, and trying to reach my volume knob is almost as distracting as having to hit that "ok" buton.
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Re:First post? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they should do it as a HUD system, prjecting on the windscreen of the car.
And then, when they feel the need to warn you, your entire windscreen goes opaque with a giant warning message.
Re:First post? (Score:5, Funny)
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How about some interface with the car media player. You could then set the sat-nav to mute the music when it wants to say something.
(Similar to the setting on car radios that let you have traffic announcements from a different station interrupt whatever you're listening to.)
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Yeah, my GPS has that option ... the problem is that it accomplishes it by radio transmission. Which works great if I'm listening to music playing from the GPS, but it's useless if I'm listening to a CD or any other source.
For built-in units it's a great idea - you could wire it to make it's announcements over whatever happens to be playing. But for stand-alone units like the Mio or my Garmin it's not really feasible.
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How about some interface with the car media player. You could then set the sat-nav to mute the music when it wants to say something.
My 2003 Mini Cooper S factory nav system does that. I didn't realize that all in-dash systems didn't. The voice of my nav system (Fiona) mutes whatever I'm listening to when she wants to tell me something.
I've had a lot of people wonder if she's a scofflaw; it sounds like she says, "If possible make ILLEGAL U-turn" instead of "If possible, make A LEGAL U-turn".
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What if the passenger wants to change the route on the satnav?
Speed Interlock Override (Score:4, Funny)
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. My brother has been playing Family Guy DVDs in his in-dash unit for years. The SAME Family Guy DVD.
Brett
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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 :-)
TV while drivin is Darwin Award worthy... (Score:2)
But should it really be up to the device to monitor this? Can't I use my navigator to let the kids watch TV in the back seat if I don't need it for navigating?
A nav system integrated into the front console would be another story though...
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.
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Whatever happened to sitting in the back shutting the fuck up and feeling miserable? I miss those days.
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
Re:That's fine.. (Score:5, Funny)
Thats a first, a computer analogy to describe a car.
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Re:That's fine.. (Score:5, Informative)
Sadly, they are not on the road all on their own. And as much as I won't miss them if they drive into a ravine while watching TV, I'm a bit less happy if they're driving in the oncoming lane on the same road I'm driving (or more likely, in my lane while they are fiddling with the controls).
(Kind of like I'm fine with them being superuser on their own system, but what do you do when they need to have modify rights to a network drive which also contains my work)
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Sadly, they are not on the road all on their own. And as much as I won't miss them if they drive into a ravine while watching TV, I'm a bit less happy if they're driving in the oncoming lane on the same road I'm driving (or more likely, in my lane while they are fiddling with the controls).
(Kind of like I'm fine with them being superuser on their own system, but what do you do when they need to have modify rights to a network drive which also contains my work)
So it's more like a shared DOS system, where everyone is a superuser, and they can all FORMAT C?
Don't waste time and money (Score:2)
I would suggest that no safety concern justifies the implementation of *ineffectual* safety requirements. The ubiquity of portable television devices and personal media players (heck, my *phone* is a personal media player) insure that anybody who wants to watch TV while driving will have the ability to do so. Arbitrarily closing out one of the many LCD screens available to them is not going to prevent someone from watching a video screen [google.com] if they so choose.
The only real deterrent would be enforcement -- poli
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.
Re:That's fine.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's fine.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people should not be allowed to have root access sometimes.
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Some people shouldn't be allowed to own a computer. And I'd be extremely glad if a law was passed prohibiting any idiot using a cellphone or TV while driving from ever touching a driving wheel in their lifetime.
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A chemist friend of mine keeps an extremely corrosive acid (I forget what type) in a bottle marked "rm -rf"
Very apt name for whoever gets their hands covered in it...
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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).
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Kinda sounds like you're not so much against libertarians are you are against liberty.
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Well, yeah, clearly the solution is to empower the government to do whatever it take in order to "protect" us. I hear that George Orwell wrote an instructional manual on that subject - perhaps you could forward a copy to your local politician, just to get the ball rolling
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I suspect that most of the ones who go on about "personal responsibility" and "force of law" are the same ones that would, if they were up before a court, whinge and whine and cry that it wasn't intentional and so they didn't do anything wrong. That and/or try to blame the carmaker for putting the device there in the first place.
Even "full force of law" means the culprit gets to sit in old sparky, that w
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No no no, in case of liability, it just means that they'll be financially liquidated in order to compensate their victims. Of course, a little creativity in this process could also provide a viable deterrent.
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If some moron watching TV whilst she should have been watching the road mows down my family and crushes my children under her wheels I can tell you I wouldn't give a toss that she'd be paying the price for her lack of personal responsibility.
There is no justification at all for anyone to ever be driving a car and watching TV at the same time. Absolutely never and that moronic contrived example of emergency broadcasts given by someone above is pure nonsense. That being the case the government should make dam
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That being the case the government should make damn sure that any such device deactivates the moment your car starts moving and punish anyone tampering with it.
Yes, this would be the magic government that has the ability to remotely disable ubiquitous [apple.com] portable [creative.com] video [playstation.com] screens [archos.com], using their Amulet of Regulation.
This is a problem that government cannot solve -- appealing to them is not going to make it happen.
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Consider this, maybe the front passenger is looking at the news/weather during an emergency.. a perfectly legitimate purpose
Unless everyone in the car is deaf, listening to the radio is perfectly sufficient and much less distracting.
Nice! (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh well, back to reality.
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Hopefully, these bastards will kill themselves without killing others, making the road safer for everyone else.
Would be nice, but what if they're driving SUVs? Then they kill others with little harm to themselves.
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Hopefully, these bastards will kill themselves without killing others, making the road safer for everyone else.
Would be nice, but what if they're driving SUVs? Then they kill others with little harm to themselves.
Summary executions on the side of the road. It is the only way to be sure...
Re:Nice! (Score:4, Funny)
Now, now, be reasonable. It's not like they copied a CD or something, all they did was endangering the lives of other people.
Because if only.. (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Seriously, there is an endless supply of stupid, distracting things people can do while driving, with out without GPS, a cell phone, TV, children, or any of the other things they might have in their car. If someone is stupid enough to be distracted by TV while they're driving they'll likely be able to find something similarly stupid to do even if you ban every bit of technology you can name from the dashboard. Like DRM, the only thing you'll accomplish by adding silly technologically restrictions like this is annoyance for people who have legitimate uses.
Re:Because if only.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Japanese taxi drivers frequently have the TV playing on their nav units while driving, but they are among the safest drivers I've ever ridden with. I think two way communication is far more taxing to a driver's attention than a receive-only medium.
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I don't think it's 'taxing' that's the problem so much as that if your eyes are on the satnav, they aren't on the road. No amount of concentration will allow you to look in 2 places at once.
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adding silly technologically restrictions like this is annoyance for people who have legitimate uses.
Can you tell me ONE "legitimate use" for using a TV while driving?
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Entertaining children so they don't throw things at the back of your head while screaming at the top of their lungs.
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.
Synergy (Score:2)
Plus they'll probably[1] be more distracting in combination than the sum of their individual effects.
[1] no studies that I'm aware of
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Indeed...
You have 10 people locked in a room:
Chances are that eventually some of them will fight, but the likelihood of death (from fights) is minimal.
Same 10 people, plus a sword, the chances of fights, injury and death, are increased.
Same 10 people, a sword and a gun, the chances of fights, injuries and death are increased.
However, you could also argue that with a sword and a gun, the remaining people would be better able to prepare and eat the dead, thus increasing their chances of survival. However, tha
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Depends how many bullets the gun has, if it has 9 bullets whoever holds the gun could pre-emptively shoot everyone else...
I never watch TV while driving ... (Score:2, Funny)
Simple safety solution (Score:2)
Or, if you switch TV on, it must stay still otherwise it will turn off.
It's simple, but will never be implemented!
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Ya, that's exactly what Dodge's in-car navigation system does. And it is annoying as hell, as I'm quite capable of driving and not getting distracted by the tv while the passengers watch it.
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What if you know the way, and your kids want to watch TV while you're driving?
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So your kids watch TV from 3 feet on a 10" screen?
Uh, yes, yes they do? A scene right out of my own childhood with a little TV on a kids desk. Its actually a nearly ideal angular dimension... My livingroom couch is about nine feet way from about a 30 inch screen, same ratio. Then there's our portable DVD player, about 5 inch screen at 1.5 feet, same ratio. Your point?
Re:Simple safety solution (Score:4, Interesting)
What about ferries? A hour long ferry ride would be the perfect use for a TV, but the satnav shuts itself down when the ferry leaves the port.
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If that works, it's an example of lousy safety design. A proper safety mechanism would make sure that GPS reception is available _and_ the data indicates that the vehicle is stationary.
THIRD WARNING (Score:2)
Puhleez (Score:4, Funny)
safety campaigners fear there's little to stop the television being used at the wheel
Silly safety campaigners... don't they know we're too busy texting on our mobile phones while driving to watch TV?
What use is a car entertainment system otherwise? (Score:2)
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!"
I thought the whole point of "in car entertainment systems" was for the passengers, hence why you have displays in the back of the front seats and so on. For the kids to watch DVDs during long drives or whatever. To me that sounds much more useful than a system that only plays when stationary, because it's only occasionally that one sits in a stationary car for the duration of a TV episode.
Plenty of systems also provide a screen for the front seat passenger.
Playing videos while the car is in motion is a req
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I was just thinking that. What about my passengers? Why can't they watch TV while I drive? It's like saying having a bar in your car is illegal because you might drink. I don't have to. But I might want to offer the boozeheads I transport something to shut up and be drunk.
I dunno what's more a distraction, TV in the car or bored kids. From my experience, I'd say the latter.
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Ok, then it's just as braindead. Just because another law forbids something similar doesn't mean that it should be done similar, too. "X is illegal so Y should be illegal too" is one way to view it. The other way is "Y is legal, so why isn't X?"
It becomes more and more common these days that the latter question is actually the more sensible one.
Watching DVD's (Score:2)
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Is possible in my brothers brand new 2009 ( some asian car model). [Maybe If I remember I will find out and post it later.] It doesn't matter, I don't know the brand of the navigation system as well. What is important is that he can watch DVD's while driving. The only safety feature is that the parking brake has to be engagded, but only one click and he can watch DVD's while driving. That is nothing. He could drving across europe without problems with the hand brake engaged to the first ratchet.
Superb trying to drive for hours with the handbrake on means you will have a break failure in an instant, best way to kill yourself...
Your brother should be candidate for the Darwin Awards!
Great (Score:2, Insightful)
It's called... (Score:5, Insightful)
wreckless driving, and it shouldn't be tolerated. Shouldn't anyone watching TV while driving lose their license?
Re:It's called... (Score:5, Funny)
Umm... it's called *reckless* driving!
Wreckless driving is desirable.
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Sorry. I guess you could call my typing reckless.
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I swear road safety campaigners are all those morons who took 5 tries to pass their test and think that driving is actually hard to do.
Or maybe they're cyclists who've had too many frightening experiences involving drivers who weren't paying attention.
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Or maybe they're cyclists who've had too many frightening experiences involving drivers who weren't paying attention.
Or maybe they're drivers who've had too many frightening experiences involving cyclists who weren't paying attention.
Seriously, in all bar two of the car-vs-cyclist accidents I've seen, the cyclist has been 100% at fault. Maybe if they paid attention to the roads instead of running every red light and cycling up the inside of cars that are indicating into that lane, they wouldn't have so ma
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How many car drivers have been killed in accidents with bicycles lately?
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That's irrelevant. If cyclists didn't deliberately ride dangerously and make themselves hard to see, they wouldn't get in accidents.
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Still, the only thing that's frightening about stupid cyclists is the possible legal fallout, if you're not too squeamish about the possible bloody mess.
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The only thing that's frightening about stupid cyclists is the possible legal fallout, if you're not too squeamish about the possible bloody mess.
Watch out for the ones carrying landmines. Running them over can spoil your whole day...
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I wish I hadn't commented now, so I could mod that +1 Funny ;-)
The problem is the lack of fear (Score:2)
Better than that bl**dy nannying by kit (Score:2)
I personally detest every bit of kit that assumes I'm some sort of moron who obviously needs to be told everything.
We have microwaves that bleep for 5 minutes just on the off chance that someone doesn't realise that microwaving means hot food, I have a dishwasher doing the same and I have come across plenty kit that keeps beeping until it gets attention, like a small child. In that same vein I consider UIs that time out so you have to do everything in a certain amount of time - the whole point of a machine
This has been in Japan for about 5 years (Score:2, Informative)
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.
Safety features... (Score:2)
A lot of these "safety features" are just a nuisance...
Many satnavs wont let you adjust the route if you're moving, but what if a passenger in the vehicle is trying the adjust the route on behalf of the driver? Similarly with TV, what if passengers want to watch it?
Stupid drivers will kill themselves regardless, if they can't watch tv on this as they drive they will just take their own portable set, or portable dvd player, or use a phone, or whatever else they're gonna do which is dangerous. All these "safe
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Install it so the screen is not in the drivers field of vision.
All these "safety features" do is inconvenience the legitimate users.
I'd love to hear what the 'legitimate use' is for the driver watching TV as they drive?
Just a few years ahead of the curve (Score:2)
A road I often travel down used to have no speed limit, then it was 40mph, then 30mph and soon it will be 20mph. I have no doubt that the speed limit will eventually be a rigidly enforced 5mph and I can happily watch tv to while away the many hours on the road.
Passengers? (Score:2)
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
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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.
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Japan Too (Score:3, Informative)
It is amazing how many drivers here in Japan (specifically near Toyota City, but I assume elsewhere in this country) are watching TV while driving. Add in texting on a cell phone, not wearing seat belts and things get more dangerous.
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I experienced the same thing in Finland five years ago. It was kind of scary, but finnish traffic is fortunately quite calm.
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We have had those units in Europe for ages, and there was not a single problem. I am not sure if this is not an American problem alone...
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It directs them all to America ? Natural selection is more cunning than I thought.
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It's probably a tuner for digital tv now. ;)