Bluetooth Car Kit News

Microsoft have confirmed that, in a tie up with Ford, they will be developing Windows based in car computers to manage email on the move, navigation downloads, mobile handsfree call capabilities and media downloads.

2 Ford models are expected to have the technology by the end of 2007.

It remains to be seen how the obvious safety concerns can be overcome, or how a computer can better provide handsfree and navigation services that current day Bluetooth devices offer today.

        

Yahoo report a recent press release in the USA by Bluetooth Car Kit manufacturer, Parrot Inc, of the potential increase in accidents because of increased driver trips in the back to school period.

Various important statistics are outlined in the article:

• 80% of traffic accidents are as a result of driver distraction
• Young drivers are four times more likely to be involved in an accident
• About 65% of near-crashes were because of driver inattention in the prior three seconds.

Possibly most importanlty is that reaching for a moving object led to the most accidents, increasing the risk and making a driver nine times more likely to have a crash or near-crash. Examples were a coffee mug rolling around or searching for a phone or map.

As younger drivers are reported to be more likely to be talking on phones, and are reportedly more distracted whilst talking, as such they are at more risk.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that at any time of day 6 percent of drivers on U.S. roads in 2005 were using hand-held phones — double the rate that was observed 5 years ago. The highest phone use rate in 2005 (10 percent) was among drivers 16 to 24 years old.

If your kids share the use of your car and are likely to use their phone, a Bluetooth car kit that will connect to any Bluetooth enabled mobile, is an option to help keep them safer and legal, whilst driving.

        

The Irish Post report on new laws that mean Police can stop drivers and impose fines for talking on a handheld mobile whilst driving. These laws are coupled with tought drink driving laws in an atempt to combat the rise is deaths on Irish roads, wihch are up nearly 10% on the same time last year, and could lead to automatic bans and fines of up to €2,000 .

The Gardaí can now stop any car without needing a reason so to do and are already setting up checkpoints outside pubs to beat drink drivers.

One in four people caught breaking the current laws are found to be foreign nationals.

Bluetooth and other handsfree devices are exempted from the ban on mobile phone use.

        

Ever wished you could access your email whilst driving? A new device by iLane lets you do just that, safely and completely voice activated this is possibly the first handsfree email solution you can get.

The device needs no wiring into your car electrice, instead plugging into the cigarette lighter, and connects to your Bluetooth enabled smartphone, PDA or Blackberry®. It will then read your emaiils to you, at your command.

There are configurable spam filters so you don’t get to hear messages you don’t need to, and priority levels so that you can limit which emails are read out to you whilst you are on the go. So Jim from the office might get through, but Kathy from the tennis club may not (or visa versa of course).

If you have a Bluetooth hands free car kit or headset installed, then chances are the iLane will work with that as well. Current compatability includes Jabra® , Parrot® EasyDrive and Logitech®.

How safe is it? iLane state that

With iLane™, you don’t have to take your eyes off the road, or your hands off the steering wheel to check your handheld device for new messages. You stay connected to critical information without sacrificing your on-road safety.

As people may well be using portable email devices at the moment anyway, this is a much safer alternative than fiddling with your Blackberry whilst driving.

        

6 deaths resulted in drivers using their cell phones whilst driving in California in 2005 without the use of a handsfree car kit.

And a bill by Senator Joe Simitian would see the use of hand held cell phones outlawed. This bill has already passed the Senate in May, a case of fourth time lucky as his three previous bills have all been overturned.

He makes a reasonable point:

“If you’ve got readily available technology to save lives … why wouldn’t you put it to use?” Simitian says.

It would also seem that there is some tacit backing by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, during a question-and-answer session earlier this month, called any driving distractions “inexcusable”. He said that his 16-year-old daughter, Katherine, has been warned that if he finds out she talked on the phone while driving she’ll be taking the bus.

The law would impose fines on those caught driving without a hands free car kit, starting 2008

        

A recent study has shown that 4×4 drivers are four times more likely to defy the law and use a hand held mobile phone whilst driving.

The report by Imperial Colledge London, presented in the British Medical Journal also found they are less likely to wear seatbelts.

Our data show a worryingly high level of non-compliance with laws on seat belts and handheld mobile phones by drivers in London.

In this large scale survy that monitored 38,000 cars and included 3,000 4×4’s, the findings were clear. One in forty drivers were found to be illigally using a mobile phone whilst at the wheel, despite it being against the law since December 2003.