Present Technology
There are a few ways companies have tried to keep drivers from using their phone while driving over the years but obviously they have not been working. In 2011, 1.3 million car crashes in the US were caused because of people using their phone while driving and 52% of Americans admit of talking on their phone while driving. There are some different examples of technologies that attempt to prevent drivers from using their phones while driving but all of them have their flaws.
One example is OnStar, a technology that has been put in all General Motors’ cars since 1995. What it does is that it has hands free calling so the driver can talk to people on the phone while keeping their hands on the steering wheel for most of the time, and it has other useful applications. The problem with OnStar is that the driver will still be a bit distracted when they are pressing the buttons on their dashboard so they can make the call. How it works is that it sends messages which are all delivered via a code division multiple access cellular connection. Or CDMA for short. Another technology is the “One Touch Text Response” featured by Chevrolet. How it works is that when your phone gets a text it shows up one the rear view camera monitor and then the screen shows a list of responses that you can reply with only one touch. The driver still has to take their eyes off the road to read the text. The problem remains that it will still distract the driver.
One of the most common technologies is Bluetooth and what it does is that you can talk to someone one your phone while driving without using your hands. It was invented by Dr Jaap Haartsen in 1998. A Bluetooth device works by using radio waves instead of wires or cables to connect the driver’s phone to the cars computer so that the car is basically a speaker phone. Unfortunately, users will get distracted when they press the buttons in their car when they make the call.
The last way people have been trying to stop texting while driving is police patrolling the roads and pulling over and giving tickets. This law first came out in 2008. The law is called bill 2377. Anyone who breaks the law can be fined $300 to $1000 and could gain 3 demerits points. Bill 2377 first took place in North Dakota in the United States. The problem with this idea is that if someone is texting while driving, the police cannot watch everyone at the same time so they may not catch the person texting while driving before they cause damage to everyone around them. But, our invention will not even allow drivers to take their hands off of the steering wheel for more than 5 seconds, therefore leaving the driver with full attention to the road and everything around him for the whole time he is driving.
History of Technology
Text messaging was first invented in 1984, and is now a popular form of communication all over the world. Texting is the latest version of communication in the long line of human communication. The problem that we face is that people are using this technology too much when they should not be, such as when they are driving a passenger vehicle. That is how people are turning something useful like texting into something that is killing people. Looking back to 2011, at least 23% of auto crashes were caused because of drivers texting while driving. You may not think that is a lot, but that is 1.3 million car crashes. Some people do not really know much about the risk they are putting themselves in when they text and drive. 5 seconds is the minimal amount of time the driver’s attention is taken away when they text and drive. That means that, if the driver were travelling at 55 miles per hour they would cross the equivalent of a football field without looking at the road. Because texting and driving was, and still is very dangerous, many governments have made laws to prevent and punish it. The first law past to prevent texting while driving was called bill 2377 and was first introduced in 2008 in North Dakota in the United States. If anyone would break that law, they could be fined $300 to $1000 and offenders could also gain 3 demerits points to their drivers license. The problem there is that when a driver is texting while driving they are 23x more likely to get in an accident so there is a decent chance that the police will not catch whoever is texting while driving before they get in an accident. That is why our invention is very important; it will stop people from texting while driving so that the number of people getting in car accidents will be reduced.
Thank you for reading about the history of the technology. Now, let’s take a look at the future of technology.