Relatives of four U.K. citizens who were killed by the driver of a truck as he used his phone while driving are campaigning for Apple to introduce a feature disabling drivers’ iPhones from working in the car.
“There is an epidemic of people using their phone at the wheel,” said Doug Houghton, who lost two of his sons in the incident. “And what do you do with epidemics? You cure them.”
Apple actually filed a patent for technology that would “lock-out” a driver’s iPhone back in 2008. However, it has never introduced it and, as far as the campaigners know, has no plans to.
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Apple’s invention covered a device able to determine if a car is moving thanks to GPS, while seeing who is using it by activating its camera. In the event that this is the driver, the phone could then stop working (or, at least, block certain key features) until the car stopped moving.
While Apple has not introduced the feature, there are numerous third-party apps — such as TextBuster — which offer this functionality as relates to text messaging if you travel over a certain speed threshold.
What is different about the new demands, however, is that a) it makes the request of Apple, rather than third parties and b) it would make it unavoidable, rather than an opt-in service.
The family of the people who died in the fatal crash are saying that if this, “technology exists it should be compulsory.”
In a statement, an Apple spokesperson has said that: “We are strongly committed to helping users stay safe.”
While this does seem like the kind of thing that would be better solved by legislature than targeting one phone maker, Apple has previously shown itself to be ahead of the curve on socially-minded issues.
Speaking in 2014, Tim Cook said that Apple often makes decisions with social good in mind, rather than looking at everything from the perspective of return-on-investment.
Quite how people would react to an iPhone that watches you while you drive — particularly given Apple’s pro-privacy stance — is another question, though.
Would you like to see Apple take the lead by introducing a feature like this in a future iOS update? Leave your comments below.
Via: Daily Mail
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “Campaigners want Apple to block your iPhone while you’re driving”
I can absolutely see the point. If society is stupid enough not to be able to act sensual and use smartphones while driving Industry must react – maybe there will be technology available in the future preventing such scenarios.
I can’t disagree more. It’s terrible that someone was so irresponsible and caused an accident. As a parent, I can only imagine the feelings these people must be going through. However, forcing this on everyone and putting government more into our personal lives is not the answer. There’s already laws on the books in every country that forbids using a phone while driving. If state/local governments think this is an important matter, based on the desires of their population, they should start enforcing those laws. We’ve all seen the people who use their phones while driving and we’ve all seen police drive right past those people. Why? Because it’s not a priority. Make it a priority like we did with drinking & driving. Strong enforcement of existing laws helped drive fatalities down. That’s been proven to work so use it.
Governments are already in your life when driving – deal with it. From seat belts to air bags and from speed limits to emissions controls. Yes, we all have seen people using their phones while driving, but we cannot expect there to be a cop on every street watching for them. This is a bigger problem that you probably think and I would applaud Apple take the lead in tackling it. I really don’t want to slammed into for someone checking their Facebook feed. I do wonder, however, how the technology would be able to see if a driver vs. a passenger is operating the phone.
I don’t believe it’s a bigger problem than I think because there’s no good data to prove that it is. It’s a perceived problem and that’s different than an actual problem.
Yes, government is already in our ‘daily lives’ when driving but that’s not good reason to add to their control. I would be very disappointed in Apple if they did anything about this.
Also, telling someone to ‘deal with it’ is very condescending.
Stupid one size-fits-all typical government solution. Tell me, how will the phone know if you are driving or a passenger? Blocking all phones moving in a car is both overkill and restricts non-drivers from checking their phones. It will be quickly hacked and, in the end, will do nothing to stop the problem it was intended to solve. If you want to stop this bad behavior, then make the penalties harsh enough people will avoid it.
And how could the phone tell the difference between driving and riding as a passenger in a car, taxi, bus, etc?
Answer: It couldn’t. Filing a patent for an idea and actually being able to successfully implement it are two very different things.