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In April this year drivers will be fined for using mobile phones if caught on the M4 mobile phone use detection system. Fair enough, we have some drongos, like the tool who was caught using both his hands to use his phone while his mate in the passenger seat held the wheel, but, seriously, is a camera system dedicated to detecting mobile use really needed? What's next, fun police?
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Australian Nanny State Tightens with Mobile Phone Detectors on Freeway
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:09PM
Given what I see in Florida, the answer is "yes", I would love to have something detect the idiots who don't have their full attention on the road. If the consequences were only to those drivers I would be less concerned, but they are aiming at me.
But perhaps the answer will lie in Self Driving cars so that we can all sit back and text/watch videos, etc. while we are leisurely transported to our destinations. Yep, I have seen a guy with a video on his dashboard driving along trying to pay attention to the video and the road at the same time.
We all suck at multi-tasking and shouldn't try.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Friday January 04 2019, @05:13PM (5 children)
Here in the USA, it would be a blessing if every dimwit driver holding a phone to their head was stopped and (at the very least) fined. They're putting others at significantly increased risk.
On-phone drivers are distracted drivers. Don't believe me? Sit down with someone on a couch or whatever and see that they are engaged in an active phone conversation with someone else. While that's going on, you explain something new to them that delivers even a moderate level of detail. You don't even need them to respond (we'll stipulate that the vocal tract can only produce one linear, sane output.) It's not going to work out; they won't have a good idea of what you told them after the call is over, or even while you're explaining it. This is because there are hardly any people, anywhere, that can give their full attention to two things at once.
Now consider: In a moving vehicle, the driver should be observing the traffic around them - front, sides, and rear. Unless on cruise, they have to maintain and monitor their speed (and they have to watch for speed limit changes no matter what.) They have to observe road signs. Animals and people on the road. Road construction. Detours. Road surface conditions. Road hazards.
You should know, if you performed my little experiment above, that there's no way anyone can do all that reliably and be at their best while also carrying on a conversation and with one hand compromised holding a phone. I think it's downright obvious that a conversation takes a lot less attention than good driving does.
Bluetoothed phones to the car stereo are better, as is any other completely hands-free phone system. But you're still trying to maintain a conversation while doing all of the above (or, more likely, you aren't doing all of the above, and you're increasing the risks to everyone else because of that.)
TL;DR: If you, while driving, find you must make or take a phone call, then pull the fuck over and get it handled so you aren't putting others at risk. If you're a passenger, don't distract the driver. It's not about you. It's about everyone else.
--
The only narcissists I have room for in my life are my cats.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @07:49PM
That is not a good test. Your test would require someone to consentrate on 2 voices at the same time. That's not what traffic is.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday January 04 2019, @08:30PM
Just like being drunk.. https://www.livescience.com/872-cell-phones-drivers-bad-drunks.html [livescience.com]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Saturday January 05 2019, @03:49AM (1 child)
[Rest of sentence trimmed as redundant].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 06 2019, @05:57AM
This time we're not taking about the politicians
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @08:53AM
Next time I will use the sarcasm markup
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:16PM (5 children)
Nany State? Really? People (even those on the right who are still living in the early part of the last century) actually still believe that nonsense?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by nitehawk214 on Friday January 04 2019, @05:26PM (4 children)
Nice bias in the summary title. Its the standard libertarian cognitive dissidence. "How dare people use their phones while driving, but how dare anyone stop them from doing it!"
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday January 04 2019, @05:37PM (2 children)
Though I am going to assume in this case the title was meant as sarcasm.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday January 04 2019, @06:25PM (1 child)
Either way it prejudices the comments.
I really dislike editorial summaries.
Personally, I think summaries should remain neutral with possibly a little submitter's quip at the end (but even those I don't really like).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @08:58AM
Feel free to fix it. As it is our newspapers do the same to their articles. Unbiased press my ass.
I was cutting both ways. On one hand great this is needed. On their other it is another level of surveillance. Giving that we have gangs of thugs beating people up in the streets this type of recoding in public spaces will only increase.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday January 05 2019, @01:47PM
Use phones while driving? Problem. Build huge surveillance machine which can do a lot more than just figure out whether drivers have a phone attached to their heads? Much bigger problem. It's not cognitive dissonance to be concerned when someone creates a bigger problem in order to solve a lesser one.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:22PM (4 children)
And it happens because you were paying attention to your phone,
I will cut off both your hands.
-
And then you will truly NEED a hands free phone, like you should have been using in the first place.
There's NO EXCUSE for putting other peoples' lives at risk. NO EXCUSE.
Sit and think about how your life will be without hands, assholes, and know that I am real and I am out there somewhere on a road you might be driving on.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:33PM
That assumes you make it away from the accident alive, Mr. tough guy. Hope it's worth your prison sentence.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 04 2019, @05:36PM
And, if it goes to court, I'll swear that Crocodile Dundee was with me at a Bar-B-Que down at the Trinity River when it happened!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @06:21PM
No cell phones? Muh, you want to take away my GOD given right to be a niggah!
Sheez next you'll be takin away m right to use exxxtra bright headlights!
[You can not read the rest of this comment because headlights are shining in your face]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @08:01PM
I agree car drivers shouldn't drive distracted. I also think you shirked some of your responsibility for your own safety by choosing to ride a vehicle where there is nothing between you and a world of hard, immovable surfaces you breeze past at 75 mph. The greatest threat to your safety is you. That's fine if you choose it, but don't complain about it.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday January 04 2019, @05:35PM (4 children)
"We here at the Ministry of Silly Walks would like to remind people that walking and talking are normal things.
Using a cell phone while goose-stepping into telephone poles is recommended for a nice Sunday stroll, while walk-leaping with a half-term is good for dropping your phone in...TO the sewer drain.
Yes, leave your car behind and talk all you want on your phone. Why, right now, I am talking on my phone while a beautiful red double-decker bus is pummeling towards m"
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 04 2019, @05:39PM (3 children)
Poor Gaaark. He should have known that double-decker busses don't exactly pummel. He assumed that he would have time to dodge because he though they pummeled. Double-decker busses actually do a lot of lurching, jouncing, and bouncing, but no pummeling.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday January 04 2019, @05:46PM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @09:00AM
You married a bus? Awesome! On video? Or just a one time guy meets bus at speed kind of thing
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday January 04 2019, @05:50PM
The driver was carrying a banana...A BANANA!
I was SOOOO scared!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @05:41PM (1 child)
WTF?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 06 2019, @02:17PM
Stop giving them ideas.
It's bad enough the abos jumped up and down about "their" land, which in their culture they don't recognize ownership of, was "stolen", where inthe abo culture if another tribe manages to chase out or kill a tribe they get control of the area so go figure how that makes sense, were granted land they claimed was of tribal historical value only to turn around and sell it.
Now everyone else on the planet wants to come here. Great. It'll be another middle east or germany soon enough.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Friday January 04 2019, @05:50PM
It still amazes me after all this time people are still addicted to their damn cell phones. It must be that hypnotic scrolling keeping them addicted. Heck, the other day I was waiting in a lobby with a number of other people and I was the only one that wasn't fiddling with a damn "phone".
Around here there is now a law against using cell phones while driving, yet these drooling consumertards insist doing it anyway. Just mindlessly yapping their faces off rather than just driving like they are supposed to be doing. Because telling people what they had for breakfast or whatever they blab about is more important that the safety of others on the road.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ledow on Friday January 04 2019, @06:56PM (2 children)
Biased much?
I'd gladly have a million cameras on the road if they caught:
- People who drink / drug and drive.
- People who text and drive.
- People who drive unsafe and unmaintained vehicles (I once tried to flag down a woman in an SUV doing 90mph+ with a completely flat tyre... I literally couldn't get near, even with traffic...)
- People who cut lanes and otherwise drive dangerously.
I already am perfectly happy and accept cameras in the use of capturing:
- People who drive over the speed limit, which has been set for over 50 years, doesn't change, and which is a LIMIT.
- People who stop in box-junctions
- People who drive through red lights
- People who drive without tax, insurance or MOT (UK annual car test)
You're in a car. Not a fucking cinema. Get in the car, get to where you're going, get out of the car, THEN do what you need to do.
It's a ton of metal (at least) moving at 70mph against other tons of metal driving towards you at 70mph. Drive like it.
It's *still* illegal in my country - and always as been - to have something in your windscreen obscuring your vision, defined as anything within the sweep of the wiper arms, and most especially that sweep directly above the steering wheel. Your phone is not an exception, nor were satnavs, people still do it.
It doesn't need to be there, nothing needs to be there, and it distracts. Centre-console satnavs and phones out of vision are things you have to DELIBERATELY look at rather than the road. You have to make a conscious decision to remove your eyes from the road, just like you do for mirrors, controls or anything else.
If you do any of the above, I'll happily take a camera every 100 yards of every public road over you being on the road.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @08:00PM
Cause you are so perfect at driving, right?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hyper on Saturday January 05 2019, @02:37PM
I mount a phone on the windscreen in the center just above the dash then angle it towards me. Have done for a long time. I can see to the left, right, and when looking at it perceive the road on either side. Useful for long trips.
I've tried a car with a snazzy new in dash GPS system. I don't see how looking down into the dash where the radio is traditionally is was better than a windscreen mounted device. At least when it is on the windscreen your eyes are still on the road.
Feel free to disagree.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Friday January 04 2019, @06:59PM
My primary goal is not to die.
Morons on phones (or drunk, or applying make-up, or berating their spouse/children, etc.) while driving negatively impacts the probability of achieving my primary goal.
What's that? You think that reaching my destination should be the primary goal? Not so much. If I die while driving, I won't ever reach my destination.
The old saw, "your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins," applies in spades here.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday January 04 2019, @07:02PM (2 children)
If you can have an AI backed camera system to watch for people using hands free cell phones . . .
How about re-purpose that system to look for drunk or impaired vehicle behavior on the road. This would ALSO catch people distracted by their phones who are a danger, but would also catch:
* drivers who are drunk
* drivers who are high
* drivers who have low blood sugar
* drivers too addicted to their phone to drive
* drivers who think their incoming call / message is more important than other people's lives
* drivers getting serviced by their passenger
* drivers who think the rear view mirror was designed to aid in applying make up and cosmetics
* drivers whose vehicle has a steering malfunction
But your honor, I was NOT texting an driving! I was updating my Facebook!
My mother in law who uses a flip phone: NO faxing and driving!
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @04:51AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 06 2019, @02:12PM
How does one test for low blood sugar from afar?
Enquiring minds want to know.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @07:13PM (5 children)
I guess Australia really is a high-wage country right now. $1200 fine plus driving ban for speeding 133 in a 90 zone. $700+ for supposedly not properly fixing a motorcycle helmet strap. It would bankrupt people in this country, quite possibly impact the local economy, which is probably the reason automatic enforcement coupled with huge fines hasn't been implemented here.
But AFAIK Australia is a democracy, so if they want draconian laws, they must be voting for them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @08:09PM (3 children)
From what I gather in the news, Australia is almost entirely a bunch of urbanites and suburbanites who are soft and afraid of everything. They need govt protection from all the boogeymen. Steve Irwin, Crocodile Dundee, and those types are as much a novelty to most Aussies as they are to us Americans--relics of a bygone age. Please, somebody correct me if I am wrong.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @10:14PM (1 child)
The real Crocodile Dundee got fucked by the government and tried to live off the edge of the nanny state, but in the end he went out GTA style [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @03:03AM
Wow, that's some story. Thanks for sharing!
(Score: 1) by The Vocal Minority on Saturday January 05 2019, @05:58AM
Like using the word "drongo".
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Saturday January 05 2019, @02:31PM
The message seems to be that if you can't afford the fines you should not be driving. It says a lot about the society.
OTOH they probably figure that if you can't make the fine you can always sell your car.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @08:51PM (1 child)
The anonymous coward who submitted this article is a reactionary fool. We need less of that, not more.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @09:07PM
What we need less is extremist, ban-trigger-happy, omniphobics, like many here commented have pointed themselves as being.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @11:15PM (6 children)
And what about those of us who use our phone as a music source, or those that use GPS..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 04 2019, @11:42PM (2 children)
This, guess I would be fined for flipping tracks on Pandora now. Its cool to eat, fight with kids and put on make up still.
(Score: 1) by BeaverCleaver on Saturday January 05 2019, @10:13PM (1 child)
This. I agree that driving while using a mobile phone is dangerous. But why have we fixated only on phones? Why is it NOT legal for me to be at a red light, answer the phone and say "hey, I'm on my way, see you soon" but it IS legal for me to eat a hamburger, light a cigarette, change a CD and discipline my kids in the back seat, all while changing gear and going through a roundabout? We already have perfectly good laws against driving like a dickhead, they just need to be enforced sensibly. More laws and more technology will not fix the root problem of people acting like dickheads.
(Score: 3, Touché) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday January 05 2019, @10:35PM
Actually, it isn't.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday January 05 2019, @03:25AM (2 children)
They're allowed, iff you have the phone in hands free mode, ie properly clamped down. Then it's like using the built in radio or satnav. And you'd REALLY better not hit anything while you're altering any settings on either (phone or built in).
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @02:26PM (1 child)
Next up: dash holes for phones placed where this type of camera can't see
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday January 05 2019, @10:33PM
Which sort of makes them hands free...
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.