Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

mobile.nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 75 posts

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#11

Post by raldi »

pcl wrote: post #8
georgeott wrote: post #3

What if you are just a passenger in the car? How will they determine this?

A good question. From the article, one of the things the guidelines call for is that manufacturers "develop technology to identify when the devices are being used by a driver while driving. That would ensure the limits are placed on drivers and not other vehicle occupants." I bet that if the handset manufacturers were to work with the car manufacturers, they could pretty easily locate the phone to a foot or so with m…

So not only will people still use apps while driving, now they'll do it while reaching their arm way out over the passenger seat.

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#12

Post by roflchoppa »

grzm wrote: post #6
roflchoppa wrote: post #2

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell technology?

Interesting question, though I'd want to know what the breakdown for organ sourcing is before I consider what the impact would be.

i would assume that it would be a majority of the donations, i cant think of other ways people die where their organs could still be utilized? (drug OD // old age // etc)

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#14

Post by redial »

copperx wrote: post #9
roflchoppa wrote: post #2

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell technology?

We can make organ donation an opt-out checkbox.

But the question is when would they donate their organs? (Making the assumption that most organ donations come from people in car accidents).

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#15

Post by adamtheclayman »

About damn time. Distracted driving first broke into public consciousness as a serious determinant of injury and mortality in 02009 / 02010.

NHTSA could have demanded this from the '09 Apple / Google / Microsoft smartphone trifecta 6 years ago, and seen it implemented by '11 or '12. I'm rather disappointed that Secretary Foxx and the Administrative and Technical Teams under President Obama did not provision these countermeasures as a national technical safety standard earlier.

Cars are so much more dangerous than terrorism... this Times article puts it at 100 souls per day. Put differently, that's at least 10x more fatalities than 9/11, every single year, or over 150x more than Osama bin Laden's hijackers just from 2001 - 2016.

Shockingly, just in the lag between the 9/11 Attack and the Land War in Afghanistan, just about as many people were killed by negligent car crashes in the domestic United States than the 2,997 souls lost on 9/11... counting the hijackers.

So which is more urgent and important? Getting human drivers off the road and young, healthy, male living donors into donor transplant program recruitment funnels or sending our young, healthy males to fight terrorism?

It's a false dichotomy... we can do all three... but the first quantitatively outranks the second by 1.1+ orders of magnitude.

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#16

Post by grzm »

roflchoppa wrote: post #12
grzm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting question, though I'd want to know what the breakdown for organ sourcing is before I consider what the impact would be.

i would assume that it would be a majority of the donations, i cant think of other ways people die where their organs could still be utilized? (drug OD // old age // etc)

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that it's a major source as well.

Looks like drug overdose is a significant (and unfortunately increasing) source:

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/14/49779944...

Looks like suicide is significant as well, though I'm not sure how to interpret this section of Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_donation#Suicide

Crikey. What a morbid subject. :/

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#17

Post by lathiat »

pcl wrote: post #8
georgeott wrote: post #3

What if you are just a passenger in the car? How will they determine this?

A good question. From the article, one of the things the guidelines call for is that manufacturers "develop technology to identify when the devices are being used by a driver while driving. That would ensure the limits are placed on drivers and not other vehicle occupants." I bet that if the handset manufacturers were to work with the car manufacturers, they could pretty easily locate the phone to a foot or so with m…

This is actually very possible you'd be surprised. Find a keyless car system that also lets you start it such as in the Mitsubishi Evo X and test the range around doors and within the driver seat etc that it lets you start the car. Surprisingly accurate.

Key just outside the drivers door won't start and the boot won't open if it's basically where the tail light is etc. and that's 10 year old tech.

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#18

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

roflchoppa wrote: post #2

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell technology?

You answered your own question. By the time we see a serious drop in auto fatalities because of mass adoption of Autonomous vehicles, Id imagine we'll be able to 3D print organs that wont encounter rejection. Alternatively, you could always take a medical holiday to China.

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#19

Post by tedunangst »

roflchoppa wrote: post #2

Serious question, in the event that we don't have fatalities from auto accidents, where will the organ donations come from? Will it be a good push for stem cell technology?

Think of it in reverse. The survivor of the accident that doesn't happen donates their organs to themself. Organ donation is just one means to increase survivorship, but there are other means as well.

Re: Auto Safety Regulators Seek a Driver Mode to Block Apps

#20

Post by jaxbot »

koenigdavidmj wrote: post #5
georgeott wrote: post #3

What if you are just a passenger in the car? How will they determine this?

If the phone is connected to a car by Bluetooth or USB, assume it's the driver's. If you get it wrong, it's just a minor inconvenience (unplug if you really need to use those features).

My partner and I will trade off who drives, but mine is always the one on Bluetooth. This would make it super annoying for me to navigate to places as a passenger, and I'd have to use her phone, which then shows the defects in the system.
Post reply on HN