Your phone is calling your car

With a new technology, a mobile phone's internal directory and call logs are displayed on a car's dashboard.
The New York Times

The story "Your phone is calling your car" published May 5, 2005 at 2:36 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[Earl Benser]

Maybe a good idea...

... as long at it doesn't work while the car is capable of moving.
Cell phnes have proven to be as dangerous to driver as drinking.
Stop the car, then talk all you want. Watching some idiot person
trying to maneuver an oversized SUV through traffic with one
hand gluing a cell ohione to an ear is frightening. Watching that
same person trying to take notes at the same time is terrifying.
And unfortunately, going 'hands-free' doesn't cure the vision
and brain locks that significantly increase the accident rate.

There ought to be at least a $500 fine for anyone using a hand
held cell phone while driving a car. No one's job is that
important. And how can you manage a good job when you do
dumb things?

[Christopher Hall]

Some basic math

Cellular distraction
+ 2-ton killing machine
-----------------------

Anyone care to venture a guess?

Why nobody seems to get this besides you and me, Earl, is completely beyond me. If someone calls me and I'm in the car, they can leave a message. I'll get back to them when it's safe to do so.

So many people these days are slaves to the little beeping device that sits on their belts. Case in point: I was at a local electronics store lately looking at televisions for some research. A salesperson was assisting me and midway through one of our conversations, my phone starts vibrating (that's another thing - ringtones have no place in public!). Immediately he asks me if I need to take the call, at which point I reach down and promptly silence my phone's buzzing. I didn't care who was calling me, I was busy at the moment and it would have been neither polite nor prudent to take a call at that point in time.

There real problem lies in the fact that ettiquite has not been widely established for cellular phones. There should be established "place and time" rules for phones, but everyone seems much more content to yammer away needlessly - and incessantly, might I add - without a care for their surroundings.

Bah, this gets my goat. I may only be 23, but I feel like I'm 80 when I talk about cell phones... I'm too young to be this old and cranky!