4 Comments

Just talking to other people in the car can be distracting. I have seen cars with 4 women in them, where the driver MUST turn her head to look at the woman in back, directly into her eyes, whenever she wants to say something to her.

Maybe we should just ban all talking when the car is in motion.

So the answer is to go back to paper maps to navigate. I can still remember the days of having a map totally covering my face while I was going 70 miles per hours. I guess that is not distrated driving.

As to what other do, I have seen clear arguments on the phone with hand gestures and no hand on the wheel. I have seen testing with the person wheaving all over the road like a drunk. I have seen women putting on make up with both hands while looking in the rear view mirror. People are nuts and you can not control stupidity.

Once you program a route in Google maps, it speaks the directions. There is little need to look at the phone while driving. So what, exactly, is the huge problem justifying this sort of large-scale federal regulation?

Not to mention, Garmin units have been around for years and were (since they have largely been replaced by smartphone apps) far more “distracting” than the phones. One could say the same of in-dash navigation systems. Mine constantly displays map and route information.

Bottom line, we have here yet another case of free people working to make all our lives better, and a “progressive” government doing its level best to put a stop to it.

Code is speech.

I look forward to any regulation of smartphone apps being overturned on First Amendment grounds.