“There’s no way that we can convince people to stop texting while driving. It’s incredibly dangerous, selfish, and reckless,” Steven Salzberg reports for Forbes. “According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, distracted driving killed at least 3,477 people in 2015 alone.”
“Many states have outlawed texting while driving, including my own state of Maryland, but every day I pass people on busy roads who are looking at their phones,” Salzberg reports. “The only solution is technological.”
“Apple’s iOS 11, coming this fall, finally offers a solution. It may not solve the problem entirely, but it will likely save lives. The solution is very simple, technically speaking. Your phone already knows when it’s on a roadway, and it knows that it’s moving,” Salzberg reports. “[Apple’s iOS 11] will not only silence all incoming calls, text messages, and other notifications, but it will text people back automatically and tell them that you’re driving. You’ll still be able to use maps and GPS for directions, which is an extremely useful feature that many people just can’t do without (and that doesn’t cause traffic accidents).”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote last week of the Do Not Disturb while driving mode:
This will actually save lives. — MacDailyNews, June 5, 2017
SEE ALSO:
MacDailyNews presents live coverage of Apple’s WWDC 2017 keynote address – June 5, 2017
People won’t stop until it really costs them. A couple hundred is nothing. increase the fine to $3,000 per incident and I bet you’ll see a drastic drop in this. Also, enforce the damn law. Like the carpool law here in California is such a joke, our state could be in the black, if they would just enforce the law and ticket single riders. I see more single riders than double. It’s all a big joke.
In the UK the fine is a percentage of your weekly salary.
Still doesn’t stop the mindless idiots I see every day on the M56.
Carpool lanes are idiotic. Stop H1-B visa scammers and illegal immigration (both to the benefit of Silicon Valley robber barons). Get out of the managerial bureaucrat “fine” mentality. California is a basket case becase of socialist control freaks.
” You’ll still be able to use maps and GPS for directions, which is an extremely useful feature that many people just can’t do without (and that doesn’t cause traffic accidents).”
Using, setting, looking at GPS is not a distraction and it doesn’t kill people? REALLY? Maybe the texts should only appear in the GPS/map app while you drive.
It is a distraction, but often less of a distraction than getting lost or pulling out a paper map, or stopping on a busy motorway.
Last time I was rear-ended the woman was picking her GPS unit up off the floor of her car
Technology like this could have saved the life of my friend and hairdresser, who strayed over a double yellow line while she was texting. Powerful compulsions like hers can’t be eliminated through laws, slogans, or social ostracism.
Nor should we excuse inaction by invoking the Darwin Awards, because that doesn’t apply to the guy in the other car, unless he was texting too, or unless we’re fine with any sort of collateral damage as long as the stupid get eliminated from the gene pool.
Perhaps being socially responsible, mature, and not behaving like a moron might actually save your life and the lives of others….and thus requires no lines of code.
Program say to kill, to disassemble, to make dead. Number 5 cannot.
Beautiful animal… canine… dog… mutt.
It’s funny how some Apple fanboys think some special app will make their lives so worth living. It’s as though they have no ability to think or reason themselves, they need a digital nanny to change their diapers, tell them what to eat, tell them when to brush their teeth – essentially how to manage their lives. And if can wear this digital nanny on your wrist to instruct you what to do every minute of every day so much the better. Good night, fanboys, sweet dreams.
If only it could also keep slower folks out of the left lane….If you look ahead of you and see open road..but a line of cars behind you…you ARE the traffic 😉
How will the phone know your the driver and not a passenger? I can imagine the frustration of your passenger or children if this feature doesn’t know the difference.
They covered that in the keynote announcing the feature – you can tell it that you are not the driver.
If you have CarPlay and an iPhone you can send and receive messages without taking your hands off of the steering wheel or of the road. Despite this, I see morons texting with cell phones in hand all the time.