On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:34:59 -0700, Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Sep 19, 8:54?am, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:
On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:05:44 -0700, Chuck Gould

wrote:
On Sep 19, 3:04?am, wrote:
3. Set notifications for your travel route- No more missing an exit on
a freeway, and then taking a 3-mile detour! Your GPS navigator can
guide you along the way so that you don't miss any turns or highway
exits...http://personaltechinfo.googlepages....e_your_new_gps

4. Get so damn distracted playing with the buttons and watching the
screen that you run into somebody else, with injury or death a
possible result.

You mean like distracted listening to the radio or CD player? Or your
cell phone?

They are no more or no less dangerous than any other car compartment
device. Including air conditioning.

We've got one of those devices built into the wife's 400H. It has a
safety feature included that makes it impossible to do very much with
the screen unless the transmission is in Park. I'd be astonished to
learn that the portable units selling for a few hundred bucks and
plugging into the 12V cig-lighter fitting are similarly equipped. The
Lexus also has a "voice recognition" system that allows the driver to
name a pre-programmed destination, say "begin guidance", and then the
system will give verbal instructions that don't require looking at the
screen. "Take next exit, 1 mile ahead", "Take exit in 1/2 mile", "Take
exit 200 yards ahead", "Exit now, turn right at end of ramp...." No
visual interaction with the screen required. Why in blazes would
anybody mount something on top of the dashboard, where it would block
vision whether in use or not?

All portable devices have the ability to turn off the device, or cause
it to go dormant, at or above a certain speed.

Mine also has voice recognition, but I don't use it. I can also use
it to stream data from traffic cams, hook it into my cell phone and
have automatic reroutes based on traffic reports - all done
automatically.

Cost me $200.

Your review mirror is mounted on the windshield and if you have a toll
pass system (like EZ Pass) that has to be mounted on the windshield.
And if your state goes to milage based usage fees for highways based
on GPS, you are going to see a lot of windshield mounted devices for
those autos that don't have accesible data from a GPS.

My GPS is located on my dash board in plain view and blocks nothing of
my vision. I would be happy to supply you with an image of same.

I see the near collisions, disregard for rules of the road, unsafe
passing, and failure to moderate wake when appropriate that result
from people allowing the electro nav stuff to run their boats.

I would be more concerned at the amount of drug or alcohol impaired
drivers than somebody playing with their GPS.

I'm not in favor of any distractions while driving, including those
that you meniton.

The point is, and I'm just having a discussion here, not trying to
score points, is that anything is distracting while driving a car.

For instance, car wrecks. Why do you think that traffic jams happen
even when the accident is on the other side of a six lane interstate?
Would you believe that is a contributing factor to accidents? Or a
pollice cruiser on the side of the road writing a ticket? One of the
major fears of a State Trooper is being rear ended during a traffic
stop and that's because he/she is a distraction.

Or take music for instance. Or a particularly heated discussion on
your favorite talk radio station on a subject you are invested in -
like, say, banning recrational cruising boats (which in my view,
should be all converted to outboards).

Or your wife. I assume that you talk to your wife while driving - is
that distracting? Having a hands free device on your cell phone is
not going to remove the distraction - anymore than talking to your
wife.

Or the radio. You have to change stations on a long trip - how
distracting is that? I have remote control for my Sirius - don't have
to take my eyes off the road at all - I'd posit that my music changes
are safer than yours.

Our state has passed a ban on hand-held cell phones in cars that takes
effect next January. I've been guilty of using my cell phone on the
road- but I'm switching to one of those blue tooth things (that looks
like an insect landed on your ear) so I can keep both hands on the
wheel and both eyes on the road.

Well, I would say that it's not the device, but the user. I was an
early adopter of the cell phone when they actually looked like
telephones - ain't had no accident yet.

And, from time-to-time, I install one of my ham radios in the truck
and drive down the road using Morse Code as my preferred
communications mode. Haven't had an accident yet.

I think the whole issue is over blown. Now, having said that, I would
be remiss without mentioning the epidemic of text messaging while
driving that seems to be infecting the teen agers. We've had several
fatal accidents in CT (and in surrounding states) where texting teens
have manged not only to kill themselves but others.

Difference between rearview mirror and a dashboard mounted device of
any kind is pretty significant. It's been an incredibly long time
since I have seen a rear view mirror mounted on the dashboard. Most
are mounted near the top of the windshield. Imagine a 4-foot tall kid
crossing in front of your car near a grade school. The kid's head will
be visible *under* the rear view mirror, but might not be visible
*over* the top of some accessory suction cupped to the top of the
dash.

Ok, just for the sake of discussion, this is a image of the interior
of my truck, in my normal seat position, taken not from the rear LCD,
but through the viewfinder so simulate my view over the hood as
closely as possible.

http://www.swsports.org/images/dashboard.jpg

What's more distracting?

Mind you, I had that mirror moved up 1.5 inches when I bought the
truck.

We normally don't run into things that we can see, assuming we aren't
too distracted to notice. Blocking vision for even several inches near
the driver projects out to a pretty large blind spot. How many times
do we hear, "I don't know where that other car came from! I swear I
didn't see it!" following an accident? I believe that a lot of people
involved in accidents really didn't see the other vehicle- for one
reason or another and many of the reasons could have been avoided.

Well, Duh...

My specific concerns with the extension of GPS plotters to cars are
the inclusion of an additional driving distraction and in some cases
additionally impaired visibility from the driver's seat.

And my concern is that at some point, you have to take responsibility
for your own actions and that safe driving is one of them. Anything
can be a distraction and unless we can design a car that is a complete
cocoon of some sort, the only way is to drive safely - not as an act
of legislation, but as an act of personal responsibility.

I have had one accident in 40+ years of driving and it was literally
the other guys fault - I was rear ended at a stop light because he was
drunk off his ass.

I rest my case. :)