Big time off topic, but really interesting.

Was watching a show last night call "Brain Games."

The topic was how your mind works while paying attention to things....as in how we concentrate.

1) The 1st big misnomer was "multi-tasking." No such thing. Your brain just completely 100% switches from one task to another. Now maybe some are better at switching back and forth than others, but they are still breaking their attention from one task to get on with the other.

2) 95% of magic tricks work on this premise. Since your mind can only concentrate and pay attention to one thing at a time, magicians use this to distract you from what they are trying to accomplish. Pick pockets do the same. Maybe no real news here, but to see it in real time and slow motion was interesting.

3) So this leads to driving while on the cell phone. They put a guy on a small road coarse had him talking to someone on the phone, and would randomly throw stuff in front of the car. Nearly all the time he was out of control as he wasn't paying attention to his driving.

Their conclusion was that driving while talking on the cell was "equally" as dangerous as driving while under the influence. The day might be coming where you'll lose your license for a year if your caught on your cell. I for one think that would be a good thing.

Food for thought at any rate.

You are just kidding yourself if you think you can multi-task. Driving while yacking on your cell is the ultimate example of this.

I am hoping for the day when they put some real teeth into the cell/texting laws.

The increase in cell phone usage (while driving) has proportionally thwarted my motorcycle riding activities

It can't be that difficult to have a devise that enables cell phone use while the car is running.

I agree that cell phone use while driving is bad but having a disabled cell phone for emergency situations is critical. I have called 911 several times while driving to report a dangerous situation.

Bruce

Ok, then have 911 be the only number that is active while driving...

* how did we manage to survive without these things

In Holland (the Netherlands) we have a big fine on usage of a phone inside a car while driving. It is slightly higher than 250$ if caught.
Actually...HOLDING it is enough to get the fine IF caught. And that is the issue.....There are 1000's of smartphones in use in traffic and no so many cops to pull you over, so the chance of being caught is very little, so people take there chances. The amount of accidents went up last years, and the biggest part of it was to blame the smartphone use while driving.

For me I find just thinking about anything but driving can get me to that state of "omg how the fuck did i get this far?" on my daily commute... It's wierd how the brain manage to drive the car as if on autopilot....

and lets not get into Teslas whole autopilot driving cars, that feature is used on our roads...today. That is scary for real....

I think there is much more DANGER when I see people Texting while driving.
I personally think some can drive while talking but Texting is a serious problem.
your eyes are not on the road at all>>> WTF. I admit I have talked on the phone while driving but I will not txt.... Just sayin

I use my cell for gps and music - and taking hands free calls, so i cant see how a cop can tell the difference between my gps use and hands free talk. Im sure politicians use there cell in their cars so they wont vote for a law against in car use unless they are exempted.

It's kind of funny to me that the solution here is not going to be to teach people how to drive, it's going to be to make cars that don't need a driver. One consequence will eventually be a loss of many jobs. Which will redirect more money away from the masses and towards the 1%. We certainly live in interesting times.

Here in the Bay Area, with so many large urban areas where the cities have gone bankrupt and local police are non-existent, the Highway Patrol (CHP) is now patrolling the city streets and taking calls they were never intended to take/handle. The other side of that is the CHP are not on the freeways doing what they were hired and trained to do. So we have all of these thugs, and I am being kind, driving like complete idiots and asshats. They are in the carpool lane, alone, on their cellphones and speeding. Driving cars better suited for some sort of thug comedy show....

So, the last thing on the CHP's mind is enforcing cell phones on the freeways......sadly.

Western Canada, first time offence $543, second $888, 3rd $1600.
After getting caught 2 times they can take your licence for up to 12 months.

They are exempted if they feel it necessary. Just like they can drive 95 going to the Capitol. It's called Judicial Intent. IIRC, it's origin dates back to a time when a local (crooked) sheriff might detain a congressman (on horseback) to prevent him from arriving in time to cast his vote on a law. It became a pretty big loophole.
"What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander" doesn't apply to politicians.

Pretty sure there is a bigger issue than just a cell phone.

My wifes new car... both screens are touch. The bottom screen controls the media and the top the navigation and readouts... I can NOT just operate this whimsically, I have to have serious attention to change either the top screen to what I want or change the radio/settings... One of the reasons I required forward emergency braking when deciding on this car...



Even worse, the higher tech you go... the worse it gets...

This must be why Tesla is leading the charge to self-driving. How could anyone adjust those screens while driving?

Egads, WTF are these automotive engineers thinking drinking?

Athletes know a lot about "muscle memory".
That is why we practice, A LOT, and the coach will chastise you for not doing it EVERY TIME CORRECTLY.

Muscle memory of a double back flip dismount on parallel bars doesn't work if you "taught" your muscles how to do it with bad form.

Driving is the same.
IF you learn to drive with good habits, and develop muscle memory with good form then when you perform the task using muscle memory, you will use good form.
Example: If you have a habit of ALWAYS using your turn signal, then you will use your turn signal even when performing the task from "muscle memory".

When we get distracted, we fall back on muscle memory for the tasks that we are performing "in parallel".
If you have poor muscle memory of the task, you will perform it poorly when on auto-pilot.

As for "there is no such thing as multi-tasking" that is false.
SOME people can do it, others cannot.

Everyone can, for instance, sign their name while looking at a computer screen and talking on the phone.
That is because the part where your hand is signing is muscle memory.
You only have to start it consciously and you hand will finish without your conscious effort.

An example: how many people have been trying to read while being distracted?
You brain can keep on reading (parsing the words) but your consciousness is not paying attention to the words flowing through the visual cortex.
Driving is like this. You can drive while not paying attention and your 'driving muscle memory' will perform all the operations automatically UNTIL something out of the ordinary occurs (deer runs out in front of you).
Some people have very good driving habits, and therefore perform well when driving under auto-pilot.
Others have horrible driving habits (not signaling or not looking over your shoulder) before changing lanes.
If you have poor habits, you will be a lousy auto-pilot driver.

This is getting worse (and will continue to get even worse) as we teach our younger generation to drive using bad habits (such as talking on the phone).

I've seen a few near accidents as our local police agencies have been heads down on their laptops, even with a cell phone plugged into their ear. We have one nearby jurisdiction where police must answer calls via texting on their laptop. When the public inquired about the dangers of this, the police responded that they are specially trained for such multitasking. Every report on the subject that I have seen/read says the brain cannot truly multitask, that no task gets completed well in these circumstances.

However, if I get pulled over for using my phone (GPS or music), I get cited since I can't easily prove that I wasn't texting or talking. But not sure, perhaps I can talk my way out of ticket for the far more complex and distracting car infotainment systems that are on the market...

I'm reading this while driving to work.
I think the multi-tasking abilities are different from person to person. For example, I have no difficulties writing this while driving in the city and

He's OK. If he had crashed he would have typed . AAaaahhhhhh Sh....!

Look, if he was dying, he wouldn't have bothered to text 'Aaaauuuggghhhh'. He'd just say it.
Maybe he was dictating it.
Oh shut up!

I don't know for sure, but I believe that phone records would prove or disprove that you were engaged in a phone call or text at the time, however, most of the laws surrounding this matter include 'distracted driving' wording - which would including eating a cheeseburger (or a veggie-burger, if it were Elliot)

Sorry guys, I'm OK. I got an incoming phone call while typing. It seems that phone calls are disruptive after all

On a serious note, for those with a strange sense of humor, I was joking. Don't text and drive!

Almost all smartphones have hardware accelerometers in them now. Cell phone makers join that info with cell tower pings to really nail down your speed and position. This is why, for the most part (depends on the area), emergency services don't really need your location when you call from a cell phone. They already know it.

What we need is something built into the phone that disables it when the accelerometer and cell tower info established that you're moving over a certain speed. Not an app, not something that can be disabled by a 'setting'. Make the emergency call available (just like it is on every iPhone currently) from the initial intro screen.

ATT had this on my Galaxy S5 when I got it new. Disabled it immediately... If your a passenger it still disables your phone. I dont think they added the tech to their new phones due to the fact that no one left it on.

Android phones already have an app for this.
If I ever text my wife while she is driving, it responds with "I am sorry but I am driving, I will get back to you later".
It can tell she is moving (or connected to her hands free), but I don't know what happens if she is just a passenger.

Sir Robin ran away
He bravely ran away
When danger reared its ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled
Brave, brave, brave Sir Robin!

All these "tests" are rigged to prove a point. There is nothing scientific about them, no control group, no tests with and without the phone.
It's also not real world, in 25 years of driving nobody has thrown a box in front of me. I can count the number of near misses on one hand.
Then the "phone" part is a series of questions your friends would never ask, not a conversation, with a time limit that is irrelevant. Failure for Mythbusters.

If driving really required 100% then stereos would be illegal and singing in the car would get you a ticket. Infotainment systems wouldn't be a popular option or addon.

Texting I have to wait til I'm stopped.... I need my other hand to shift

On the other hand, I did get rear ended in a drive thru once, by a couple arguing

We need better drivers, not restrictions.

Here in Massachusetts, cell phone use by teenage drivers is illegal. Texting is illegal for anyone. Isn't cell phone use with a hand held unit illegal in New York? I thought the only legal way there was with a hands free device.

And it makes it really hard to catch pokemon...

Unbelievably, the son of a friend considers driving a "distraction" from his use of his smart phone. I stifled an onerous reply, wanted to tell that college kid to get rid of his car, save the money, and just call uber. But, I held my tongue. Unfortunately, that is not an atypical attitude among todays' youth.

My retirement job takes me on the surface streets and interstates in and around Cincinnati four days a week. Virtually every day I see accidents, almost always rear-end collisions (distraction perhaps?). Every day drivers not moving when traffic signals show green. Every day stop signs being overlooked. Every day red lights ignored. Every day people driving 5, 10, 15 or 20 mph below the posted speed limit. Every day people veering out of their lane and into either adjacent or oncoming traffic. Though cell phone use is not always the cause, my unscientific observations seem to indicate that its use usually precipitates the incident.

Paul

It's the age difference mentality. Try talking to him on Snapchat.

Paul, that matches my experience in Cincy. Awhile back I came upon an SUV weaving and slowing down/speeding up on the highway, and as I snuck around them saw that they were talking on the cell, applying mascara, and eating a sandwich!!

I was the 3rd car in a chain reaction last month, the guy that caused it just came upon a line of stopped traffic at a light and couldn't stop in time. Flat, straight, multi-lane road, 100% visibility, rush hour traffic. No reason not the be watching, nothing to obscure anything going on. He was distracted by something.

The most simple solution still works:


HANG UP AND DRIVE!

I am oncall 24x7. My management knows that if I am driving, I will not answer the cell phone at all. No texts, no handsfree, no nothing. So they leave a message. I call when I get to my destination. If they call twice in a row, I will pull off at the next safe place and call back because I know it is an emergency.

I value my life too much to risk it by talking on a cell phone.

One of our local PCA members got his daughter a Boxster for her first car. He disconnected the radio, removed the passenger seat, and put in a roll bar with a petty bar across the passenger compartment. He set her cell phone to stop working if it exceeded 15 mph and locked out her ability to change that setting.

She never had an accident or a ticket, Until she got a different car.

[quote name='somd914' date='Oct 31 2016, 02:27 PM' post='2418045']
When the public inquired about the dangers of this, the police responded that they are specially trained for such multitasking.

What a crock of sh!t