It seems that automobile crashes (and fatalities) caused by smart phone distractions are increasing. Out on the road (in mid US), I notice a lot of people on phones, and I find it alarming. There are multiple local news articles every month for car crashes.
Do you think that there are realistic actions that can be taken by every day people to help spread awareness, or better yet make impactful differences?
My ChatGPT subscription is expiring soon, and I wanted to try to use it for something useful. So I used deep research to generate an informative article related to this, and I broke into smaller web pages. You can see it here - https://no-more-distractions.info/
It’s decently written, although true, it is probably AI slop. Even so, I think it highlights some interesting information (maybe important even), and is worth skimming through at the very least.
There are two ways to deal with the problem of smart phones distracting drivers.
Option 1: Personal responsibility. Simply won’t work for most people because they are addicted to screens and have the false belief that they are adept at using their phone while driving because they do it all the time, which has lead to greater reckless use; not dissimilar from drunk drivers. A negative social stigma can help with this, but that is not a silver bullet.
Option. 2: Phones disable their screen inputs while motion is detected. This will be effective, but some people will find ways to circumvent it. Regardless of a number of users disabling a motion lock, it will provide a decrease in distracted driving related accidents.
A bonus 3rd way that isn’t as good as either of the above, physical keyboards and the return of T9 which allows for you to type while looking at the road. This minimizes the amount of time spent looking at the screen and would help a little.
Those are interesting points.
Option 1 - that might work with more awareness and accountability. Other US states have awareness campaigns, along with enforcement. These seem to help. Threat of legal actions or fines increase personal responsibility.
Option 2 - I think that would never happen. People would complain. “Passengers can’t use their devices. We have to talk to actual people in the car!”
Option 3 - that is an interesting idea.
There already are fines and campaigns, they are ineffective because of a societal lack of personal responsibility.
Fuck them, socialize and save your battery.
For option 2, what about passengers?
Fuck em. Haven’t you been driving and had your passenger want to show you something on their phone?
Not having an internet connected phone in the car wasn’t a problem when I was younger. We would play music and chat about whatever bullshit. We didn’t need to doom scroll or thumb through Instagram, we socialized.
And anybody on a bus or train?
Fuck them too. Ever been driving a train and someone shows you a picture on their phone?