14 DAY TRIAL // To prevent and cut the number of distracted driving accidents in the U.S., the Department of Transportation (DOT) is asking automobile manufactures to disable some features in their cars' digital dashboards, especially Internet access and call dialing.
The DOT wants car digital dashboards to automatically turn off some features while the car is in motion.
These include outgoing calls, Internet browsing, social apps, texting and entering new manual addresses in the car's navigational system.
All features are to be reactivated only whenever the car stops or is in “Parked” mode.
These are not compulsory rules, but only some technical guidelines to combat some driver tics which cannot be prevented or controlled by official authorities at all times.
The Department of Transportation is placing its trust in carmakers to do the right thing and disable these features programmatically, without a new rule being officially enforced.
The DOT's chosen path of issuing a guideline is also much faster, compared to creating new nation-wide rules that have to be approved in part by each state as a compulsory state law.
Chances are that automobile manufactures will follow the DOT's recommendation without many complaints.
Carmakers already follow a similar self-imposed convention for ten years. Their guideline mentions a ban on all user tasks that take more than 2 seconds to execute.
If there's one request that will probably be heavily debated or downright ignored by carmakers, this is the disabling of GPS coordinates being entered while the car is in motion.
As some critics have voiced out, this might have the potential to compel some drivers to return to using maps.
Using a map is widely considered even more unsafe and dangerous than configuring the GPS while in motion, and is one of the primary reasons why GPS devices where invented.
Other critics to these guidelines refer to passengers not being able to use those devices, even if the driver is completely focused on the road.
The guidelines are now up for a 60 day comment period, in which carmakers and the public will voice their opinions and suggestions.