From the Nanny-in-Chief on down, Big Brother reigns in Washington as every department from Health and Human Services to EPA to Transportation seek ways to tighten their grip on American choice.
A day after a federal court judge in Detroit ruled that forcing Americans to buy health insurance is constitutional, transportation secretary Ray LaHood let it be known that Detroit auto manufacturers might have to abandon in-car connectivity systems that they have spent millions developing. Nanny LaHood, reports the Automotive News, “believes motorists are distracted by any use of mobile phones while driving, including hands-free calls.”
Not content to enforce existing distracted-driver laws, LaHood has been building a case for a non-permissive standard where drivers must be mute, two-hands-on-the-steering-wheel autobots.
“I don’t want people talking on phones, having them up to their ear or texting while they’re driving,” LaHood said this week calling for research on hands-free systems. Hands-free phone conversations are a “cognitive distraction,” he says. And eat your broccoli!
The potential restrictions have meant the auto industry has had to arm itself with more lobbyists to make their case for in-car communications systems. Ford’s SYNC and GM’s OnStar system, with about 5.7 million subscribers, are testing applications that would let users make audio updates to their Facebook pages and have messages from the social-media site read to them while driving.
“I’m absolutely opposed to all of that,” said King LaHood.
What’s next? A ban on small children in cars? Tethers to force both hands on the wheel? No passengers in the front seat?
Sorry, but this is a boneheaded column in an otherwise excellent magazine. I like to think I am as conservative as the next guy, bordering on libertarian, but I think you missed the boat on this. Driving while texting, and even talking, even hands free, has been shown to be just as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. You may have a right to text, talk, drink or whatever, but not when you are exercising the PRIVILEGE of operating a regulated motor vehicle, which in an instant of inattention can become an instrument of mayhem, affecting permanently and irrevocably the constitutional rights of others - e.g. their right to life. If you want to text and travel, ride the bus. If you want to talk on a cell phone in a car, let someone else drive. Just as the First amendment does not allow you to yell fire in a crowded theater or smoke while fueling your car, your rights to engage in risky behavior stop where my rights to keep on living begin.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYa know, I tend to think of myself as "middle of the road" as the next guy, however, the banning specifically of hands free devices IMHO is one step too far over the line towards the NANNY STATE! I work long hours and have a long commute on top of that. If hands free devices are banned along with cell phones in general, then I must waste precious minutes taking the next exit to answer or make any calls, even to let my family know I'm on the way home. I fully understand and support a ban on texting and cell phones to the ear, as these are the patently irresponsible behaviors of the proverbial clueless (possibly)young driver, I daresay drivers with hands free devices in their ears are the ones who are specifically trying to be responsible. As for the current rhetoric that even hands free devices are not ABSOLUTELY safe?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHas the entire nation taken leave of its senses and is no longer able to consider the possibility of a trade-off? consider the minutely small increase in risk when one uses his hands free device to make a call, and compare that to the wonderful convenience of being able to make a 30 second call from the road. Commuters out there, at least, can understand that possible trade off.
What particular personal indignation are YOU willing to turn the other cheek for (Airport pat downs anybody??)
before you finally wake up and say enough is enough, I'm a responsible human being who can manage my own behaviors, and if not, hold me fully accountable.