Q about the new rules about mobiles when driving...

[Appuskidu]

The way I’m reading it is that you won’t be able to touch your phone in a dock whilst driving to alter the sat nav route /music etc

Does that mean that if you have a built in sat nav in your car, you can’t touch that either?

No, you can use that.

Though that seems to suggest that if you’ve got a nice new car with built in sat nav, that’s fine to touch buttons on, but if you’ve got an old car without one and have to use your phone, you can’t use it?!

You can use your mobile phone as a sat-nav.

Only via voice control

From what I can tell its still being reviewed and there will be exemptions such as using your phone to pay for things and using it as a sat nav. I've not seen anything that says it can only be used with voice control.

A government spokeswoman said that motorists could still also use phones as satnavs, if not physically holding them. Drivers could still be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention if they try to type in directions at the wheel.

Chief constable Anthony Bangham, the lead for roads policing on the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “Using a mobile phone while driving is incredibly dangerous and being distracted at the wheel can change lives for ever. Police will take robust action against those using a hand-held mobile phone illegally, and proposals to make the law clearer are welcome.”

@dancemom

Only via voice control

That’s what I read in the paper this morning, but whether that’s true or not I don’t know.

I just didn’t really see the difference between pressing buttons on a Sat Nav, whether it’s on a phone on your dashboard or directly on a built in Sat Nav?

@jdoejnr1

From what I can tell its still being reviewed and there will be exemptions such as using your phone to pay for things and using it as a sat nav. I've not seen anything that says it can only be used with voice control.

Using your phone to pay for things? While you're driving?!

Surely you dont adjust your phone satnav while driving anyway? Has that ever been acceptable? Thats what google voice controls are for

An inbuilt screen is usually bigger, in a steady confirmed place, bigger buttons etc. you dont actually have to look at it to skip a song and its in a garunteed position, phones can be anywhere but i still wouldnt adjust satnav on it while driving

Using your phone to pay for things? While you're driving?!

I presume it means holding your phone out and paying eg to go through a toll or a drive through.

@Clymene haha no. When you're at a drive through.

[quote jdoejnr1]@Clymene haha no. When you're at a drive through.[/quote]
Oh! I had this vision of doing your online shopping

Do you need to touch your phone while driving as sat back? Surely you enter details before you leave, or get to a point where you’re going to need them and pull over to start the directions?

There shouldn’t really be a reason to touch the sat Mac on your phone while driving unless it’s for a re-direction or faster route option on which case pull over and review if possible. Got to be a rare occurrence that you must touch it and absolutely can’t pull over.

Bloody iphone— I swear I’m not driving right now but it will let me type anything but SAT NAV

I think there should be something about long conversations on hands free mobiles.

I know this is hard to enforce.

A long or even a complex conversation on hands free takes up cognitive resources that should be free for focusing on driving. A passenger in the car is aware that there is traffic around and will regulate their conversation as needed. But I worry about people having detailed, cognitively demanding hands free conversations that distract them.

But I don't know how that can be regulated,

@chomalungma

I think there should be something about long conversations on hands free mobiles.

I know this is hard to enforce.

A long or even a complex conversation on hands free takes up cognitive resources that should be free for focusing on driving. A passenger in the car is aware that there is traffic around and will regulate their conversation as needed. But I worry about people having detailed, cognitively demanding hands free conversations that distract them.

But I don't know how that can be regulated,

By that logic toddlers should be banned from all car journeys

By that logic toddlers should be banned from all car journeys

Buy why

From the reporting I've read, I don't think the law intends to distinguish between a built in satnav, a removable dedicated satnav, and a removable general purpose device.

Picking it up while driving is banned. The plan is to close a loophole but not to make whole new offences as it were.

Using a device in a fixed mount in a way that distracts you is already banned. The law will I expect recognise the difference between, for example, tapping one button to say yes to an alternative route, versus typing in an entire address while driving.

Using a device in a fixed mount in a way that distracts you is already banned

Is it?

Or does that come under dangerous / careless / lack of observation?

The latter, if you're being technical about it.

Why would you program in a route via your sat nav or via phone while your car is moving?

many of those complex conversations are work related.
i think the driver, even while at work, in a works vehicle has a duty to say, even on hands free, i cannot take this call now, i am driving. i will ring you when i stop.
and stick to that.
if really scared of losing job, the signal is fading, cant hear you.

many of those complex conversations are work related

Totally. Trying to negotiate a deal whilst driving. Dangerous
Saying you'll be there in 1 hour. Cognitively easy.

Ehhh - at risk of being flamed, I think I'm less distracted during an extended hands free chat on a motorway than I am when small children are in the car yelling, shrieking, crying, dropping things on the floor, rubbing food into the seats and arguing with each other... but I'm not a parent so maybe I'm missing something magical that allows you to be fully focused through all that?

Re new guidelines I think it's quite normal not to touch a built in or dedicated sat nav while driving?

It came up in another thread recently. Any sensible employer does not encourage their staff to take phone calls while driving, and many outright ban it. Of course there are still idiot employers around.