Ars Technica:
A California judge is dismissing a lawsuit brought by the family of a 20-year-old Minnesota college student who blames Apple for his 2013 death by an iPhone-wielding texting teen.
The dead boy’s family claims that Apple had a legal duty to help prevent texting while driving and that it could have used patented technology it has developed to prohibit motorists from driving while distracted.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Maureen Folan, however, took Apple’s side.
I feel for the family but it’s good Apple is not being held responsible. That being said, do you believe Apple (and others) should be doing more to prevent these kinds of accidents?
Agreed. The cat and mouse game between texting drivers and tech impediments will probably continue beyond the arrival of autonomous driving.
One impediment could be an NFC chip in the steering wheel that would pick up the proximity of the phone but even if implemented on next year’s cars and all phones with NFC chips, that still would leave millions of idiots free to text. It would eventually reign in many but unfortunately many more still will find a way.
Yes. I think Apple should do more. Apple should provide a co-driver for every iPhone sold. This person would take your phone away from you and keep it off while you drive.
Apple IS doing more. iOS 11 has a Do Not Disturb While Driving function; cf. https://www.imore.com/do-not-disturb-while-driving-ios-11-can-change-your-habits-if-you-let-it. That said, stupidity can overcome most technological impediments.
Thanks, was going to point this out. I don’t see a technical solution that’s possible without being either overly intrusive or error-prone. You can’t disable texting on any phone in the car as that cripples the ability of passengers to text. the iOS 11 approach pushes you in the right direction which is a good step. In the future, if we can do better, we should but for now I think that’s as much as can be done.
The human species is constantly being culled through the process known as natural selection.
Unfortunately, you can’t legislate common sense.
More people die because of drunk driving not involving cell phones. Maybe we should work on that first.
The point is we need to go upstream of the iPhone/cell phones and alcohol and consider doing something with cars. And, it seems we are with autonomous driving and even some of the newer feedback systems in cars for lane drift and blind spots.
You can’t prevent innocent people from being killed by those being selected, either.
This is a sad situation for the Riggs family, their 20 yr old son killed by an 18 yr old texting while driving. It was senseless and preventable, but Apple is not to blame. Municipalities bear the burden of legislating and policing this, but Apple will be assisting here with their Do Not Disturb feature in iOS 11. Real question is, will drivers disable this or abide by it.
Hot coffee.
Actually, it’s not. Evolution by natural selection requires factors not present in modern society.
And tell me you’ve never made a mistake of any type that could randomly have been amplified into a deadly accident.
Or how about they drive the car.
Personally I like the idea of all cars being made into rolling faraday cages. That way there’s no way a cell phone can be used in the car. Even a passenger using a cell phone could distract the driver so not even they get to do it
But that doesn’t stop a driver from picking up the phone and starting a call etc.
If that’s supposed to be a reference to the McDonald’s lawsuit, its a big of a different case. Because McDonald’s was legit making their coffee way too hot. And they got caught over it when the woman spilled hers and got major burns. And they weren’t the only company doing it. Starbucks and several others were found to be just as guilty
Los Angeles already has laws about holding your phone while driving etc and many folks ignore it and always have. Until we literally block all phone functions while in a car there’s going to be folks that don’t GAF. Or in lieu of that perhaps cameras that can see drivers and license plates and we start heavily ticketing everyone that gets caught by the camera. Which won’t likely happen cause ‘privacy’
Nor from eating a burrito while driving, or using the mirror to check for zits. As I said, stupidity wins over technological impediments. That’s why we have the Darwin Awards: http://www.darwinawards.com