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Comment by fetus8 | Hacker News Reader

In the last two weeks, I've seen two drivers with phones mounted on their windshields, watching what appeared to be the news while driving on the highway. Both instances were men, at least 40 or older. It shouldn't come as a shock in 2019, but I was still pretty surprised in the moment. Unfortunately, according to the article, my state has no such laws against this type of behavior.

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To be fair, I've played video (not in the car, for the record) that I only really had on in a background tab for the audio. Something like the recent impeachment hearings I could see pulling up CNN for without actually watching.

No laws against distracted driving? That's kind of a general catch-all, but it would fit...

I guess the Bloomberg article is wrong...we do have laws that ban using a phone while driving for manual entry (texting, web browsing). I wonder how watching video content plays into that?

https://leg.colorado.gov/content/distracted-driving-and-cell...

Unpopular opinion: though a cause for concern, a video playing near a driver's windshield is far less dangerous than a driver taking their eyes off the road, looking down at their phone, context switching, and interacting with it. In my area distracted driving is epidemic -- I just assume that most of the folks rear ending each other in broad daylight are the direct result of drivers looking down at their phone.

I agree this is an unpopular opinion - because if you want to watch a video than take the train or the bus - I read on my commute every day while I ride the train in.

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