New service to stop loose lips from crashing cars

By PETER SVENSSON , AP Technology Writer, Technology / Software

(AP) -- When David Teater's 12-year-old son, Joe, was killed in 2004 by a driver who was talking on a cell phone, he tried to cut back on his own habit of driving and talking. It turned out to be very difficult.

Content from The Associated Press expires 15 days after original publication date. For more information about The Associated Press, please visit www.ap.org .

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Posted by Wasabi 10/14/08 02:24

Rank: 3.8/5 after 4 votes

I'm not to keen on this from the information that is presented thus far. And what about when I'm a passenger in the car, how would it distinguish my phone from the driver's?

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Posted by gmurphy 10/14/08 04:49

Not rated yet.

I suppose the service would have to be initiated by the customer.

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Posted by Velanarris 10/14/08 05:06

Not rated yet.

I'm not to keen on this from the information that is presented thus far. And what about when I'm a passenger in the car, how would it distinguish my phone from the driver's?

When you use phone service your ESN is used as a handshake. so every signal sent or recieved is "branded" as originating or destined to your device. It's the same principle that allows millions of computers to use the internet, and even something as simple as mail to reach your house. Think of it as your digital address.

This type of data is already used to determine if someone involved in a car accident was on the phone at the time of the collision. It's just done manually through using the black box on the vehicle and pulling your phone records. Adding bluetooth devices to vehicles makes it even easier and the Blackbox logs what devices it connects to and whether they're active at the time of collision. For some auto manufacturers the police do not need a warrant to pull this data, I think currently Ford and GM.

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Posted by ryuuguu 10/14/08 05:28

Rank: 5/5 after 1 vote

I'm not to keen on this from the information that is presented thus far. And what about when I'm a passenger in the car, how would it distinguish my phone from the driver's?

read the article
"For instance, parents will get alerts if their kids override the motion-sensing feature to indicate that they're riding in car rather than driving. "

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Posted by hudres 10/14/08 15:27

Rank: 1/5 after 1 vote

I could easily see a class-action lawsuit against this company. There are so many illegalities and infringements of rights that it shocks the mind. If this takes hold as an involuntary action by the carriers, I would have no problem joining a class-action suit. My attorney agrees with me.

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Posted by ryuuguu 10/14/08 16:48

Rank: 4/5 after 1 vote

@hudres

Americans you just gotta wonder. The right to drive a a couple tons of metal at high speed in a dangerous manner, and if anyone tries to stop us from killing and maiming bystanders we'll make buck out of it.

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Posted by Wasabi 10/14/08 20:39

Rank: 5/5 after 1 vote

I'm not to keen on this from the information that is presented thus far. And what about when I'm a passenger in the car, how would it distinguish my phone from the driver's?

read the article
"For instance, parents will get alerts if their kids override the motion-sensing feature to indicate that they're riding in car rather than driving. "

Damn, I did miss that sentence, thanks Ryuuguu.