In an attempt to curb the number of dangerous drivers on New York highways who are distracted by their smartphones, the state is introducing dedicated Texting Zones where motorists can pull off, park, and safely use their mobile devices. But the initiative doesn’t require any new construction since existing rest stops and parking areas along thruways and highways are technically being re-branded as the safe places to pull over and text.
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E-ZPass is probably the best thing that’s ever happened to paying tolls. Those plastic funnels you toss coins into are a close second. But E-ZPass has a bonus feature. It can be used to track you everywhere you go.
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So we might have found Biff Tannen. A guy in Wisconsin was texting and driving a Ford Mustang convertible when BAM… he crashed into a tractor pulling a trailer "full of liquid manure". Yikes, that might actually be worse than Biff’s fate in Back to the Future.
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AT&T recently recruited none other than Werner Herzog to direct some short videos for the “It Can Wait” campaign to curb texting and driving, but their collaboration hasn’t ended there. The campaign, which also has the backing of Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, has today released a 35-minute documentary by the legendary German filmmaker that delves further into the first-hand accounts of texting and driving dangers seen in the 30-second spots. Titled “From One Second to the Next,” the documentary is freely available online, and is also being distributed to more than 40,000 high schools and number of safety organizations and government agencies in the US.
As the Canadian Press reports, Herzog said that the project “immediately clicked and connected inside of me” when AT&T proposed it to him, adding, “there’s a completely new culture out there. I’m not a participant of texting and driving — or texting at all — but I see there’s something going on in civilization which is coming with great vehemence at us.” You can watch the full documentary after the break or on the It Can Wait website.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile
Source: It Can Wait
Last week, Motorola announced its new flagship handset, the Moto X, that included some sweet new features. The phone isn’t out yet, but you can duplicate some of the functionality right now.
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Wondering what West Virginia and Britain have in common? This. After hearing that a bill in WV would outlaw Google Glass for motorists in the state, a new report from Stuff suggests that the United Kingdom is considering something comparable. A Department for Transport spokesperson was quoted as saying the following:
“We are aware of the impending rollout of Google Glass and are in discussion with the Police to ensure that individuals do not use this technology while driving. It is important that drivers give their full attention to the road when they are behind the wheel and do not behave in a way that stops them from observing what is happening on the road.”
He went on to affirm that a range of penalties already exist in order to punish drivers who aren’t “paying proper attention to the road,” and while a law has yet to be passed targetting Glass specifically, it certainly sounds as if that type of modification is on the table. Silver lining? North Korea has yet to issue a similarly depressing condemnation of the headset.
Filed under: Transportation, Wearables, Google
Via: Cult of Android
Source: Stuff
Automatic license plate readers are the most widespread location tracking technology you’ve probably never heard of. Mounted on patrol cars or stationary objects like bridges, they snap photos of every passing car, recording their plate numbers, times, and locations. At first the captured plate data was used just to check against lists of cars law enforcement hoped to locate for various reasons (to act on arrest warrants, find stolen cars, etc.). But increasingly, all of this data is being fed into massive databases that contain the location information of many millions of innocent Americans stretching back for months or even years.
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While there are smartphones apps that take some of the hassle out of finding parking, Audi’s bringing similar time- and frustration-saving features to a different screen in your ride, through its Audi Connect infotainment systems. Announced at the Telematics Detroit conference, Audi is tapping Inrix’s parking spot data so you can find car-friendly floor space from within its dashboard navigation platform. After telling the car where you want to go, you’ll have the option to see parking info at the journey’s end, including the nearest locations, operating hours, prices and real-time space availability, depending on what data is available from each garage. The sat-nav will also direct you straight to the entrance of the lot, and should you want to know what that entrance looks like, Google Street View will show you. Audi’s new parking feature should start hitting Connect-equipped cars from today via an OTA update, so the “finding a space was a nightmare” excuse won’t fly next time you’re late. But don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.
Update: Turns out that Inrix gets its data from ParkMe, the makers of the app we link to in the first sentence, which explains why Audi’s new feature is so similar.
Filed under: Transportation, Software
Source: CNET, Seattle Times
It’s an age-old problem: do we clamor for a company to ship a product that’s not ready, or do we swallow delays with grace as it aims to deliver when things are good and ready? Such a choice has to be made when it comes to Automatic, the California-based startup which had originally hoped to start shipping its automotive dongle + app platform at the end of this month. Those (including yours truly) who pre-ordered on day one received an email last night delivering the news that things were running a bit behind schedule. The hardware itself is actually already being manufactured, but stellar components are only a piece of the total puzzle. The software — an iPhone app, in this instance — still needs more time in the proverbial oven, and now we’re being told that packages won’t ship until “the end of August.”
A three-month hiccup is nothing to scoff at, and Automatic seemingly knows it. In order to sate those who were hoping to use the $70 product during their upcoming summer road trips, the company is giving early pre-orderers the option to beta test the app as it stands today. For those who agree, they’ll receive their hardware in mid-June, but they’ll be forced to use it with a version of the app that “lacks a few features like Crash Alert and support for multiple cars and users.” We’ll be keeping a close eye as the situation develops, and will definitely endeavor to pass along a review just as soon as we’re able. If you’re curious, we’ve embedded the email in full just after the break.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Automatic
If you thought you were driving safe when activating your voice-to-text service or starting up Siri, a survey by the Texas Transportation Institute suggests it might dull your reactions just as much as finger-based typing. The study compared traditional text messaging with voice-to-text and found that drivers still took about twice as long to react compared to when they weren’t trying to communicate. According to Christine Yager, who led the research, “eye contact to the roadway” also suffered, regardless of which texting method was used.
In fact, voice-to-text often took longer than manual input, due to the need to correct typing discrepancies while using the software: “You’re still using your mind to try to think of what you’re trying to say, and that by proxy causes some driving impairment, and that decreases your response time.” The bigger issue is that the drivers apparently felt safer when using voice-based entry, even though test results proved that response times were just as negatively affected. “It is important to educate the public that even these seemingly new distractions are still distractions, and it will help people be safer when they get into the vehicle,” Yager added.
Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation
Source: Reuters
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