Perhaps there is a way to make motorists drop their cellphones when they are driving. At least a dozen startup companies have come up with phone apps that aim to remind drivers not to get on the phone when driving, a distraction that can lead to accidents. http://www.nj.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/business-64/1269805869222700.xml&storylist=technology&thispage=1
But these applications, unveiled at a wireless trade show last week in Las Vegas, are not perfect solutions. They have their pitfalls. In some instances, the apps only work on certain phones and have a hard time detecting if the user is really driving.
And so far the government, auto makers, cellphone manufacturers and wireless companies have not taken any stance or made any movement supporting devices meant to thwart driving and talking on a cellphone at the same time.
So smaller companies are trying to fill the void. Those include Drive Safely Corp., which plans to put software and a GSP in cellphones that can tell if the phone is moving faster than 15 miles an hour.
Some of the other companies also creating devices to discourage motorists from using their cellphones include ZoomSafer, TxtBlocker, Key2SafeDriving, TrinityNoble, Textecution and Cell Safety, according to the Associated Press.
A number of states, including New Jersey, ban drivers from talking on handheld cellphones.
Oprah Winfrey has also taken up the cause. In the April issue of O: The Oprah Magazine there is a two-page ad that reads “Stop America’s Deadly Obsession.” The ad says that driving while using a cellphone “is equal to driving while drunk,” and that for texting, “it’s the same as being two times the legal limit.”
Then ad then encourages readers to “Take the pledge today,” by pledging to make their car a “No Phone Zone.”
The ad directs readers to a page on Winfrey’s Web site, http://www.oprah.com/packages/no-phone-zone.html, which tells readers to sign the pledge. “You could save a life – maybe even yours.”