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Comment by nik12795 | Hacker News Reader

For those commenting that this is more dangerous than just texting and driving, I think you're missing the point of this fun and entertaining experiment. I urge you to watch the video since I point out that it's not safer than texting and driving.

I also point out that there are other ways to incentivize the driver to not text and drive, like having the driver pay a fee when they text and drive.

I appreciate the discussion but a lot of these comments are bringing up points that are clearly addressed in the video. Please don't just read the headline and comment; watch the video and then lets all have an informed discussion :)

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Ten years ago two guys built an app for recognizing movements and sold it to Google for a lot of money. https://blog.ycombinator.com/flutter-yc-w12-acquired-by-goog... If you programmed a neural network attached to a camera that can see the driver's hand and eye movement to identify dangerous dark patterns in their driving behavior in real time, then corps like Uber and Amazon might want that information to save lives, but no shock collar.

I can see how that would be an attractive acquisition! Although having a camera installed to watch the driver might be a bit of a pain.

Why? It probably costs $10 for a camera with bluetooth that has a little rubber plunger attached.

Well I think you're making an assumption that the consumer would be educated and motivated enough to buy this product and then be willing to stick a camera in their car and keep it plugged in all the time for little short term value to the user.

Plus, with something like this, there is a difference between the end user and the person purchasing the product. The purchaser might be a parent for their child but the end user is the child. I think there's a small percentage of end users who would actually use the product their loved one bought them.

So I guess overall it feels like it would be tough to gain traction and find product market fit.

> the driver pay a fee when they text and drive.

Rich people will just pay this fee and keep texting.

Anecdotally, I noticed that all my friends who can't stay off the phone when they are driving are all heavy social media users, so I think the social shaming method will work well: The car takes a picture of them texting and driving and posts it to all their social media accounts.

Yeah that's a good point. I also mentioned having a social shaming method where, every time you text and drive, it automatically posts "I'm currently texting and driving" on social media.

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