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news
Driver using mobile (CC licensed image by lukys1:Flickr)"Do Not Disturb While Driving" coming to iPhone
When iOS 11 comes to iPhones (and iPads) later this year, the new operating system will include a "Do Not Disturb While Driving" mode. The new feature will detect when you’re driving and automatically silence all incoming alerts and notifications by default.
Business Insider reports that when the feature is activated, you won't even be able to get to your home screen to open any apps until you stop driving.
The feature will assume you are driving if your phone is connected to the car via Bluetooth and it can also use your phone's WiFi antenna to sense when you're moving at speed. The feature can however be overridden by turning on the screen with the power button before clicking a button marked "I'm not driving."
Video: The mobile phone app that pays users $5 for spotting drivers using their phones
"It's all about keeping your eyes on the road," said Apple’s Craig Federighi. "When you are driving you don’t need to be responding to these kinds of messages. We think this is going to be a real important step in safety in the car."
Federighi said that contacts would receive a message saying, "I'll see your message when I get where I'm going" – but the phone can also be configured so that certain contacts can get through. Federighi said this was so that, "you have the peace of mind that you can get contacted."
Last month we reported how more than 200 drivers a day were caught using a mobile at the wheel immediately after tougher penalties for the offence came into effect on March 1.
Drivers now face a £200 fine and six penalty points on their driving licences for the offence, while those found using a phone within two years of passing their test will have their licence revoked.
Despite this, the RAC Foundation’s Steve Gooding said that the key message still wasn’t getting through.
"Driving is a safety-critical activity that requires our full attention. Hands need to be on the wheel and eyes looking out of the windscreen, not down at the phone screen.”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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25 comments
You'll now have people trying to disable the new feature before doing whatever they wanted to do while driving making the time they're on the phone even longer.
I may have this wrong, but isn't the solution simple? Don't use a phone while driving!
People just can't resist. Oh I'm at the lights, I'll just check that text that came in.
And before you know it they're completely engrossed in it, trying to tap out a reply. Or they get stuck in traffic and decide to "just" check the mapping and travel app and then they'll "quickly" give the wife/husband/dog a call to let them know they're running late but it's OK cos they're using the phone safely and it's an emergency and there was nothing on the road...
I was "only" checking directions, it was "just" a quick call, I just "had" to show that LOLCat video to my passenger.
People can find a way of justifying to themselves more or less anything like that. They're OK doing it because they're great drivers but everyone else should be prosecuted. Same with speeding. Same with driving in the first place! I "need" my car but all these other people should work from home/get the bus/get out of my way...
Next step will be to add ability to contact police and alert them that you may be using your phone whilst driving.
Is there an app to help me tie my shoe laces, blow my nose and wash behind my ears, mummy?
Watch yourself with that kind of logic round here.
"When the feature is activated"
Pointless waste of development and QA and will likely kill sales of anything with that version.
Won't have any effect on anyone not connecting to the car via Bluetooth and anyone else will just hit the override button as soon as they get in. I'll have to look at the BlueTooth standards to check how they can determine it's a car it's connected to and not a laptop on a train.
Can't imaging all the car manufacturers that are adding Bluetooth functionality to read text messages and so on will be too pleased.
No mention on how if affects streaming MP3s to the stereo?
Don't know about you lot, but the passengers I sometimes carry in my car don't have their phone paired with it. So you should only be able to use your phone if it isn't paired with the moving car.
Passengers - no problem
That will just lead to drivers not pairing their phones to their car so that they can use it whilst driving.
The root problem is human behaviour and not a technological problem. Except for driverless cars - that would fix it.
I couldn't agree more. One of my pet peeves is seeing a driver of a modern, high end car (even mid range these days) talking into their handset, knowing full have they hands free as a factory fit.
I think this might well be the case. I saw something briefly which said the phone had to be connected to Apple CarPlay for it to work / stop working. More and more new cars come with CarPlay so it might eventually catch on. Or you could disable Bluetooth just before you need to send that important status update. Whilst driving through a red light.
I carry the same phone in my cars when I'm driving as when my wife is driving and I'm a passenger.
Besides which, if pairing the phone stopped it being used, why would anyone boher pairing in the first place? And if the driver is going to use a phone, better it's paired and used hands free.
Totally usueless and as above is really just an arse covering thing.
We could start by the so called safety concerned EU commision on road safety banning ICE that has capability to transmit on a screen anything other than music track or radio programme because these inbuilt screens and add ons are as distracting as a phone if not worse because it is always there.
Similar thing is the EU allowing brighter car headlights, all it does is allow drivers to go faster at night time and dazzle other raod users.
When you have idiots who wholly rely on sat nav to get where they are going and are constantly looking at the screen (why not just use the voice directions?), people using social media via their built in screen or watching TV/DVD etc. it's a menace as bad as phones.
i also think reversing cameras should also be banned, people look at the screen and have no thought to look elsewhere when reversing and simply see the base aspect of the vehicle and nothing else.
Maybe we need to make handling a media device in a vehicle a criminal offence on a par with drink driving, 12 month instant ban and a confiscated device once all data retrieved (due to using it in criminal activity), may make people think twice.
So if you click the 'I'm not driving' button, use your phone and then cause an accident, would you be legally in a worse position?
I'd like to hope that any punishment in court would be more severe (or less leniant as is probably the more likely) if you've chosen to override a system like that.
Indeed it would be interesting if the phone/providers kept track so it can be used against you in a court of law.
I don't see the point of it. The dangerous part is driving whilst not paying enough attention to your surroundings and to tie it into what a phone happens to display and whether you read it or not is completely beside the point. Why should someone with an iPhone be penalised when an Android (or maybe older iPhone) doesn't display the warning? Ignorance of the law is not a defense, so whether you read and click-through or not shouldn't make the slightest bit of difference.
This is pointless. It's a technological "fix" to change people's behaviour which very rarely works.
To change people's behaviour we either need to make it socially unacceptable to use a phone whilst driving or enforce the law often enough so that people don't do it to avoid getting fined.
The problem with a technological fix is that passengers often want to use mobile phones in cars, so there's a requirement to bypass the new mode. That means that drivers will just use that bypass; it's like the GPS devices with a warning screen about not using it whilst driving - people just ignore it.
If I had my way, I'd put some plain clothes police on bikes and have them ride around cities taking pictures of motorists on their phones. However, we'll need better penalties - I recommend a £500 fine (of which £250 goes straight to funding the necessary police) and a 6 month driving ban for the first offence. That will get results.
No need i'll do it for a fiver a car, if the Police supply the go pro. Pass loads every morning on their phones on my daily commute
Get a bit more Pavlovian. With a modern car you should have it wired up to the seat heating coil so if you're moving with your screen on it shocks your nuts.
Hopefully it will also detect when you're commuting by train
All I can imagine is a load of motorists getting very annoyed that they can no longer text their friend/colleague while driving, because said friend/colleague has some "stupid driving mode on".
This is about covering Apple in the event of being summoned as partially liable for their devices role in a crash.
Perhaps it'll make drivers think twice, but for most people it won't really.
You can't disable a device because it's in a moving car because of something called passengers.
Good concept, but from wrong starting position. The default setting should be to disable phone, with a big warning if it is deactivated.
It's a start I suppose. I don't own an iphone so I don't know if it's got a map app loaded by default to tell if you were actually on a road rather than a train track. If it has then they should leave it locked. No real need to be pissing about with your phone whilst the car is moving.