Why Isn’t There a higher Strategy to Text While Driving? [Texting]

It’s deadly. It’s irresponsible. And we’ve all done it. Before you commute home take into account this: Why isn’t there an improved way to texting while driving?

Last night in La, celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Ryan drove his car over a cliff while sending a text to Twitter about his his border collie. (Quite possibly this tweet.)

Dr. Ryan’s death is a shame-mitigated only by the indisputable fact that he didn’t hurt anyone else. (His dog Jill survived the accident, even.) But it surely’s impossible not to feel a little schadenfreude at his self-inflicted death while doing something so trivial. ” Darwin Award!” we chuckle. But we’ve all done it in certain cases-or something equally as distracting while driving.

” COW” , a public service video from the UK in regards to the dangers of texting while driving.

Texting while driving is particularly dangerous, not simply because we’re distracted, but because it necessitates taking one’s eyes off the road, often for plenty of seconds at a time. Anything done while driving is a distraction-staring at an iPod, looking through a purse, even talking on a Bluetooth headset with eyes on the road-simply because it distracts us from the task handy: piloting a two-ton machine at speeds considered appropriate for less than daredevils and experts just a century before. (Tom Vanderbilt’s book ‘Traffic’ addresses this at length, for those enthusiastic about statistics.)

But I’ve done it. I believe lots of you’ve gotten done it. Just last weekend, careening south through rural Missouri in a rented Pontiac, I sent and received a dozen text messages with my sister as we coordinated the logistics of a family emergency. I was upset, tired, and finding being a safe driver difficult enough without looking to peck out letters on a glowing touchscreen with my thumb. But I did it because that’s what I had to do. I may have pulled over on every occasion. But who does that actually?

A quick glance at a phone may not be far more dangerous than a snappy glance at anything. That is to assert: Dangerous, but routinely so. Text input, nevertheless, is a nightmare. Car & Driver tested texters on a closed course and found they were more distracted-more deadly-than drivers who were drunk but keeping their eyes on the road.

My own strategy is to hold the phone at the pinnacle of the steering wheel while typing within the hope that my brain will still have the ability to recognize dangers in front of me, despite the fact that my vision is concentrated on a bit screen on a miles closer plane. It’s not likely an exceedingly sound theory and I’ve been fortunate to never have really had the opportunity to position it to the test. I actually have found myself wandering out of my own lane once I try and keep the phone in my lap to stop anyone from seeing me texting while driving, swapping embarrassment for recklessness.

There are several iPhone and Android apps that advertise voice-to-text services, but reviews seem middling at best-so poor that I didn’t even bother to check out any of them. The speech recognition app that I take advantage of on my iPhone, Dragon Dictation, works incredibly well, but requires a 3G connection, in addition as copying-and-pasting from one app into another. That’s hardly better than simply typing.

Type in ” SMS” within the iTunes App Store and you’ll find apps that will let you text other countries or use voice to trigger pre-scripted messages, but nothing that properly replaces or extends the official Apple ” Messages” app to add voice recognition.

Apple’s recent acquisition of mobile assistant app ‘Siri’ indicates the iPhone maker thinks that voice control is going to be on oversize component of the long run of mobile interfaces, but it surely’s not yet integrated into iOS whatsoever that matters. (‘Voice Control’ on the iPhone is nearly comically unable to recognize things like names from your personal contact list.)

Google’s ‘Voice Actions for Android‘ may point the manner-you should use Voice Actions to send a text-however it’s Froyo (Android 2.2) only. Plus it still requires you to observe your phone quite a lot to ensure that the voice recognition has worked reasonably well enough to get the meaning of your message across.

I can’t envision an optimal solution in need of bespoke systems that integrate text messages into heads-up displays, as an example-solutions that cause as many problems as they solve. And considering this all morning, observing the statistics, has reaffirmed my belief that texting while driving have to be avoided at all costs. (Killing myself is something; killing another person because I was irresponsible is another.) I’ll use a bit of that time on the side of the road with my hazards on wishing that there were a safer, easier compromise.

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This post is tagged: Driving, HIGHER, strategy, Text, texting, why