Using Mobile whilst driving

TF, many new cars still have a normal radio and CD player fitted but they are accessed via the software and not in the conventional way.

The Bluetooth option is just another way of accessing stored music, as is a CD or tape, and often allows the radio part to be used as a hands free phone when linked to a smart phone but is not normally essential for radio use.

Like a lot of things these days, manufacturers assume everyone is able to understand and use computers etc. Personally I love the techie equipment but others say it is fitted because they can rather than because it is an improvement.

"although I do think people have always taken their eyes off the road for some reason or another."

Precisely why we don't wave to MHs, Pippah. There are already enough distractions without creating more. 

My car has Bluetooth connectivity which is good for receiving calls since the button to allow the call is on the steering wheel. However to make a call you have to scroll through all the contacts in your phone, that's something that is very distracting IMHO and therefore which I'll never do.

Mine is similar with the button on the steering wheel but it's voice activated. I only need push the button and say clearly "call home" (for example) and it does exactly that. 

Both our cars have Bluetooth connectivity. Haven't a clue how it works! In one it's never been connected and in the other it was connected to my phone by the dealer when I went to collect it but turned off since then by me, as is my phone when driving. I'm
afraid no call is important enough to me not to be able to wait till the end of my journey ( but then I'm not working!) 

I recall watching a 'Police, Camera, Action' years ago, with a clip from a patrol car following another car, that for no apparent reason, crashed into the back of a stationary car!

The young lady, a nurse on the way to work, was changing a tape in the cassette player!

....The technology may have changed, but the availability of distractions to draw you away from paying attention to the road have not!

I see, without fail, 2 or 3 drivers every day on phones and others eating, drinking, applying make-up, deep in 'expressive' conversation and have even been sat behind someone at a T-junction watching pornography (dont know what else they were doing).

We are all (including myself) often all too complacent about the risks we take when driving, because the roads are so staticstically safe for us and because due to the cuts in funding and actual police patrols, patrolling, how unlikely we are to get caught! 

I would like to see the police use the same gusto regarding phone use while driving, as they do with, say, drink driving. They have the technology to check if and when and how a phone was used, but fail miserably to use it. There will soon be a Christmas
drink/drive campaign on our TV  screens followed by a police crackdown on the run up to Christmas. Why can't they do the same regarding phone/driving. I don't have any statistics, but would reckon that using a phone whilst driveng is as big a cause of accidents
as drink driving, my opinion of course.....

Using a mobile device while driving is antisocial, dangerous and selfish.

Facebook is not a necessity.  Neither is text messages. As far as making a phone call is concerned, pull over and make the call when parked up.

Cheers K

It  may  seem  a  little  extreme  but  I  would  prefer  the  Middle  Eastern  Answer  to  this  !!  On  the  first  offence  cut  off  the  hand  holding  the  'phone  about  6"  above  the  shoulder !  Doubt  if  anybody  would  risk  it  a  second  time!!

And  before  I  get  offended  replies  might  I  remind  everybody  that  the  bloke  who  just  got  a  few  years  in  prison  killed  four  people.

Brian  A B M

Mine is Bluetooth and voice activated, press one button on the steering wheel and everything else is voice activated, including the radio, CD player and even the internet. Yep, my Volvo connects to the internet through my phone but only works when stationary.

As for distractions, screaming children are more of a distraction than a phone call.

I also think that the police should have the powers to seize the mobile device.... May make some think twice.....

I would just make it law that anyone found using their moble whilst driving gets their vehicle crushed. Try explainig to your boss why his articluated wagon has just been seized!

Write your comments here...problem is more often than not its the boss calling the driver 

I cannot see the reason for using a mobile whist driving for which you only get 3 points on your licence going up to 6.

By the sentence this driver recieved for dangerous driving says it all and instead of reporting for using a mobile each person using whilst driving should be prosecuted for dangerous driving and dealt with accordingly. It would soon cut out the mass use
as it is now.

It was a terrible tragedy, caused by avoidable lack of concentration, the film from inside the cab was appalling. It's a solemn reminder to everyone. I see so many drivers doing the same, it only takes seconds to ruin people's lives.

My car has Bluetooth connectivity which is good for receiving calls since the button to allow the call is on the steering wheel. However to make a call you have to scroll through all the contacts in your phone, that's something that is very distracting IMHO
and therefore which I'll never do.

Mine is similar with the button on the steering wheel but it's voice activated. I only need push the button and say clearly "call home" and it does exactly that. 

Same in my car. I use it quite often.

...but not as easy to call all the other entries in ypur address book....they would all have to have tags..or distracting scrolling.....

even my very, very old company nokia could do this years ago but i didnt use it.....call home (and one press receiving) is more than enough....IMHO.

BB, I can tell it to call anyone on the contact list in my phone. The voice activation works for them all. I could even tell it to "Call BB" if I had your number.

The use of 'home' was an example as I clarified on edit.

Mine is a new car with the latest system and my phone is an iPhone. I'm not bragging but those factors could have a bearing on the way my system works. 

You do need to remember the name you've stored somebody as per your example, BB, but it wouldn't surprise me if the system suggests alternatives. 

The other day, as an experiment, I told it to 'text' and it replied that messaging is not yet available. That implies it's on the way one day. 

All the above re making or receiving calls in the car is by the way ...... the bloke gaoled was scrolling through music files ..... they just happened to be on his phone rather than on a mp3 player/etc. And what's the difference between a conversation via
a phone & a 2 way radio?