OnStar to allow Facebook updates while driving

[mike r]

http://www.tgdaily.com/software-features/51455-onstar-to-allow-facebook-updates-while-driving

OnStar to allow Facebook updates while driving
Emma Woollacott

We all know what torture it is being unable to update your Facebook status while driving. How on earth are your friends to cope without knowing that you're stuck at a red light, say, or running a bit low on gas?

But salvation is in sight. OnStar is testing a voice-to-text feature for its in-car communications system, and says it could be used to make Facebook status updates while on the move.

The OnStar service currently provides accident alerts, directions, vehicle diagnostics and emergency roadside assistance. It's available on around 30 vehicle models, and costs between $200 and $300 a year, although the first year's usually free. The system currently has around 5.7 million users.

But sources at the General Motors subsidiary have told Bloomberg that the company's finalizing technology that would allow users to make status updates and listen to their news feeds while on the move. It's currently testing it with a small number of users...

[madrchsod]

1. will it let me play zynga games?

[JerseygirlCT]

2. Oh good grief

How stupid is that?

And this from someone who does check into FB daily.

But there's nothing that can't wait until I'm home!

[CanonRay]

3. Now there's a bad idea

whose time has not come.

[happyslug]

4. The chief problems with Cell Phone is inattentiveness..

This OnStar move sounds like the efforts in regard to cell Phones and "Hands Free" Cell phone. The later was an attempt to "solve" the problem of accidents while using a cell phone. The "Solution" was based on the belief that the cause of the accidents was that one hand was on a cell phone instead of on the wheel. Even when "Hands Free" was coming into use, this had already been proven false. The reason Cell Phone use increase accidents is the talking and interacting with a person on the other side of the conversation NOT the actual operation of the Cell Phone. The talking to someone else on the phone increased inattentiveness and thus accidents.

The weird part of those studies was that people in the same car tended NOT to increase accidents (With the exceptions of teenagers). Basically as one observers noted, when you are in a bad driving spot, every other driver in the car shuts up. We do it instinctively and automatically. We know it is a bad situation and even if we are NOT the driver we look were a car or other road hazard may be. Teenagers do the same when they are in a car with an adult, or even one other teen (In groups of three or more this breaks down, but given the lack of experiences driving all teens have not unexpected).

Among all drivers the problem is that when using a cell phone the person on the other side of the Conversation is NOT seeing what the driver is going into and as such the person talking to the driver keeps on the conversation as if nothing is happening (To the person on the phone nothing is happening for all they can tell is from the conversation of the driver). When we are talking to someone, we generally do not want to abruptly end a conversation so as the other side keeps on talking, so does the driver. This slows down the driver's reaction time and leads to the increase in accidents.

Another problem with being on a Cell Phone is how people react to other people naturally. This is NOT the result of training but seems to be instinctive. Basically when we can see a person when we talk to that person we look into their eyes. When we can NOT do that (as on any phone) we look downward. Thus it talks an effort to look forward and drive, and anything that leads to inattentiveness leads to one looking downward. A secondary factor it a lot of accidents involving Cell phones.

Side note: In the CB craze of the 1970s you first saw the while spread use of something the driver could talk on while driving. No real increase in accidents were reported for the CB only had a very limited range (In most areas under Five Miles) and used to call other vehicles. These restrictions imposed by the system (and the even earlier radio system used by the Police and other emergency workers) restricted calls to be very brief. No long term conversations were possible (Unless you were on the same highway going the same direction). Thus any inattentiveness was short term. Given that most conversations were about road conditions tended to minimize accidents. This all changed with Cell Phones for then you can have a long conversation with someone who had nothing to do with the driving conditions you were in. Just pointing out short, less then a minute use, seems enhance driving safety, but over a minute on the phone causes it to decline the longer you are on the phone.

Once you understand the above, you realize the problem is NOT the Cell Phone (or OnStar) but how it is used. One should NEVER use either while operating a vehicle.