Google will soon have new technology to let people text completely by voice. Thoughts?

Anyone got another option?

I do, but it'll take a few years for the technology to arrive. Cops should have instant access to cell activity logs. If they stop you on suspicion of using your cell for talking or texting, they should be able to just plug in your number and see if there was very recent activity on it in that cell. Nobody can deny they were using their phone when the cell tower says they had a message or call only a few minutes before.

They need to make texting while driving a primary offense, which would allow officers to stop individuals if the cop thought that they could be texting (reasonable suspicion), and looking downward and not at the road would be one of the reasons for this suspicion. IN many places, using cell phones is a secondary offense - something you can add on AFTER you stopped someone for some other offense.

Wow, you mean legalism doesn't work. Didn't Jesus say that to the Pharisees like 2,000 years ago? Oh wait, Jesus was a racist and homophobe,so who cares what he had to say?

If you need ten million laws for your society to function, it means it will soon collapse. People must know how to be responsible without every facet of their lives being regulated by some psychopathic politician or lawyer or indoctrinated by teachers or Hollywood.

yeah, speaking of indoctrination, lets leave the condition and trajectory of our society up to jesus.

Of course drivers should just stop texting and obey the law but some drivers feel that they can get away with it and will do so by keeping their phone down and out of view, meaning that's where their eyes will be too. Whereas in the past drivers held up their phones by the steering wheel while they drove making it easier to glance at their phone while looking at the road. So it's possible that the ban might be more harmful than good, at least initially.

People who text while driving are dangerous idiots, and people who text/email while walking are inconsiderate morons. Someone should create a performance piece where they walk up to individuals who are emailing/texting while walking and make them show what exactly was so important. Guaranteed it will be some insignificant shit.

Young people drive like idiots. I was young, I drove like an idiot. Insurance companies and car rental agencies have known this since the Model T. States should consider upping the penalties for reckless and inattentive driving for everyone 25 and under. No fines that they either can't pay or can pay all to easily, just temporary license suspensions. Threaten to yank someone's driving privileges for a week or a month and they'll get the message loud and clear.

A solution insurance companies would love:

Massive insurance premiums when you're young, starting at $15,000 when you're 18. With each passing year assuming no accidents, the premiums slowly go down until they reach current levels. That would be enough incentive for young 'uns to keep their eyes on the road. And the insurance companies get to make out like bandits.

Based solely on how carpet-bombed we are by car insurance ads I'd say car insurance is one of the few instances where Milton Freedman style capitalism actually works - multiple vendors chasing the same dollars in an open market. If there was a car insurance cabal they could charge $15K, but there isn't. The current situation is "we would offer young drivers a cheaper rate to undercut the competition but we can't because it's not economically viable for us to do so, and we've got the actuarial tables showing how risky young drivers are to insure to back it up."

I didn't drive like an idiot when I was young. In fact, a favorite memory of my teenage years (perhaps 6 months after obtaining my license) is driving so well that I managed to avoid being part of a multi-car accident caused by a bad driver during an ice storm. I swerved around the bad driver and put my car into the snowbank. When the cops got there they actually told me my driving skills had not only saved myself, but had made the entire accident much less dangerous as the people behind me had a lot more time to stop due to my getting the hell out of the way. Not all young people are bad drivers, and not all bad drivers are young. States should consider upping the penalties for EVERYONE for careless or reckless driving. It's no less dangerous because the perpetrator is middle aged. It's easier to pretend that young people are all bad drivers than to realize that plenty of people on the road, old and young, never deserved a driver's license.

And if you think yanking people's driving privileges does any good, you clearly haven't been reading Gothamist very long. You've missed the million and a half stories of people whose licenses were suspended not only driving, but doing whatever they were doing that got their licenses suspended in the first place.

That's why I've always said to forget suspending licenses. Confiscate the car. You can drive illegally without a license. A lot harder to do that without a car.

"Are Texting Bans Making Texting Accidents Worse?"

no dumbass, shoddy enforcement of idiot drivers is to blame.

And how, exactly, are the police supposed to be everywhere that this is happening? It's the people doing it who are to blame, not the lack of enforcement. (Or maybe you just didn't read the story...)

no shit sherlock. covered the root cause by saying "idiot drivers". i'm on the highways all the time, routinely witnessing cops ignore cell phone use by idiot drivers. maybe you didn't read:

"Now, the Highway Loss Data Institute is saying texting bans may be making texting-related accidents increase."

they are blaming the BAN. not the police, not the drivers. next time remove your head from your ass before replying so as not to waste anymore of my time.

No, actually, I wasn't addressing the point of the article. I was replying to you. You see how the thread works?

Love how you're switching what you initially said in order to justify yourself. You're blaming the police. ANd being a jerk while doing it.

i brake for the disabled, so i'll take time to explain it to you play-by-play since you're obviously mentally challenged.

--i copy-and-pasted the headline questioning: "Are Texting Bans Making Texting Accidents Worse?" i disagreed with that premise.

--drivers need to be smart and aware whilst behind the wheel, if they play with their little electronic toys they are: "idiot drivers"

--police need to do their job and enforce the traffic laws: "shoddy enforcement"

--then you chime in to erroneously state that i'm blaming the police, which as i now have thoroughly explained, is not the case.

now you've wasted even more of my time, because of my enduringly sympathetic nature. you may pay me back for my time by chauffeuring me around in my car while i legally talk dirty to your mom on my cell phone. deal?

It is the damn violators that deserve the blame. However, there definitely needs to be much greater enforcement. Problem is, dumbass legislators, eager to keep their jobs, pass laws at the whim of the public which typically makes an outcry at every tragedy, but the dumbass legislators don't bother thinking it through and seeing what resources/money needs to be allocated. So you end up having laws that are great in theory, but difficult or impractical to enforce diligently.

One solution to offset the problem of infrequent enforcement is to make penalties stiffer. But our society apparently wants the penalties to be proportional to the violation or the crime. Our society wants to have its cake and eat it too. So we end up getting nowhere.

This drives me absolutely crazy. Put the damn phones down people!! People managed to drive - and survive - long before cell phones existed. If you want to kill yourself, have at it. Just don't take others with you.