UK to ban any handheld use of a mobile phone behind the wheel | Hacker News Reader

UK to ban any handheld use of a mobile phone behind the wheel

engadget.com

26 pointselorant24 comments

Funny how this is illegal, but car touchscreen controls are not

Funny how you can’t stare at your lap scrolling Instagram on your car touchscreen.

Car touch screens are ~3 foot interface, whereas a mobile device isn't, and is pretty dense in information (and usually 2 handed).

They're not really comparable.

This is already the case where I live. I think it’s obvious you shouldn’t be allowed to do this on a moving car.

Ditto on both. Doesn't mean that enforcing it is easy unfortunately.

Not my jurisdiction, but automated measures are starting to be deployed to detect phone use: https://roadsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/stayingsafe/mobileph...

My local police having been taking the more pragmatic approach of setting up detection stations at convenient places (such as on the slope of a hill with a tunnel exit with a good downwards/sideways view into traffic) or even hiring a party bus to cruise up and down busy roadways, with plain-clothes officers in the windows looking down into cars - and then radio-ing the license plate number to mobile units (usually a gaggle of police motorbikes stationed nearby) who pull over and ticket the offending drivers.

Twice I've seen drivers watching videos on their cradle attached phones. Was at traffic lights once and saw it in car beside me. I should have tapped his window and said something

what about using it for map directions?

> drivers can continue using their devices hands-free, such as for navigation purposes, so long as they're secured in a cradle.

I have a newer car and don't generally have my phone "secured in a cradle". Instead it's laying on a platform and plugged in via USB, and my car has Android Auto.

I wonder if they are allowing for this mode of usage, and if so, it is allowed to use the built in screen in the car.

Although hands-free usage is supported in the sense of choosing navigation destinations, there are still plenty of buttons on the car touchscreen that are usable and intended to be used on my 2021 model.

It would be interesting if they are outlawing that sort of thing.

If they are not outlawing it, then it doesn't seem very consistent.

I would expect that isn’t usage of the phone, but of the car’s own controls.

Are they running out of things to make laws about

Distracted driving is almost as bad as drink/intoxicated driving, as far as causing accidents go. If you're using your phone for 3 seconds while driving at 60 km/h, you've essentially travelled ~50m without anyone in command of the vehicle.

Even just taking a call on a properly setup hands-free arrangement incurs a dangerous cognitive load, to take your attention completely off the road to change a playlist or send a txt message is outright insane.

Ok, fair point. How are they going to enforce this?

Just saying ‘dont do this’ is not going to deter a lot of people. So it seems like an empty gesture that passes as caring for the public without much effort going into its enforcement.

Per my other comment, look-down phone detection cameras are becoming broadly available, and my local police occasionally use raised vehicles like mini-bus with plain-clothes officers looking down into cars in the adjacent lanes then dispatch mobile units to pull over and ticket the offending drivers.

It is possible to enforce, and ML-powered traffic cameras are only becoming more common

> Drivers can't do any of [these] even while their vehicle isn't moving. The government will revise The Highway Code to explain that being stationary on the road, such as at traffic lights or in the middle of traffic jams, still count as driving.

So now I can't pull to the side of the road to start Maps or see who texted me without getting out of the car? Even if I turn the engine off?

If you're pulled over, you're not driving. The danger is that I've seen drivers stopped at traffic lights staring at their phone, see the car in front start moving and then almost floor it into me as a cyclist. If you're not intending to drive, you're not a danger.

If you're pulled off the road, you're not on the road.

At least in the US, major highways seem to have a "breakdown lane" that exceeds the width of a vehicle. So if you're pulled "to the side of the road" here there's a good chance you're still on the tarmac (although you might not be).

Breakdown lanes are for emergencies. Entering the breakdown lane for a non emergency, such as to check your phone, is illegal in some, if not all, US states. It is also just a generally really bad, dangerous idea. If you need to check your phone, get off the highway.

>get off the highway

What exactly do you mean by that? Get over in the grass or whatever is beyond the breakdown lane?

I'm confused by your confusion. Do you drive? I mean get off at an exit and find somewhere safe to park. You should not be stopping in the context of highways unless you absolutely have to. The phone issue is way, way secondary in this context.

In non rural areas, you don't typically have open land to the sides of the highway. You have a wall. Pulling off the highway and then presumably just getting back on at a spot of your choosing would be incredibly dangerous.

>Do you drive?

I sometimes drive in areas of the US where exits and rest stops are not close together.

Could be 30+ km to the next one. Maybe 50. One very dangerous thing that drivers do is keep driving to the next exit or rest stop when they are falling asleep.

>In non rural areas, you don't typically have open land to the sides of the highway. You have a wall

It makes little sense to me to qualify advice on highway driving with "non-rural areas" because by definition you can't drive very far and still be in a city.

However, be that as it may, your generalization is not the case in my part of the world (US). There's commonly grass beyond the breakdown lane, which might be mown, and the land may slope up or down after that. There are often guardrails, particularly when there is a steep slope down, but certainly not always.

I'm specifically referring to the highways that run right through the city I live in. As you get into the city, the guardrails are heavier duty; of course there are more bridges and stuff. But there are still places they don't have guardrails and there is a fairly substantial strip of grass between the road and the trees.

What you have as you get closer to the center of my city is, there's still greenery and trees on either side of the highway, but there is a strip of concrete at the edge, with drains. If there's an embankment, obviously you're not going to pull off there.

Offroading on the highway is also illegal in most, if not all states. I'm not sure what you're missing here. Casually pulling over on the highway to check your phone is not an option. Highways are not for stopping. If you need to stop, you find a highway exit, get off, and then pull over.

> Could be 30+ km to the next one. Maybe 50. One very dangerous thing that drivers do is keep driving to the next exit or rest stop when they are falling asleep.

That does not mean the recommended action is to stop on the highway!

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