Morning TV on my MFD during commute to work

... Brad

 

if tv is so bad, then how come every prius in japan comes with it

 

I'm curious, to the people that are ok with others driving while watching TV, do you have children? Since I've had children I've found that I'm alot more sensitive to the reckless behavior of others.

And to the ones that insist that they would never glance at the TV for more than a half second, I bet there are things that would grab your attention for longer than that. (Hot girls in bikinis, interesting sports replay, newscast of a horrific car accident, etc.)

 

I fired an early shot in this thread by posting a "crazy" smiley face, but otherwise I've sat back and watched from the sidelines. After reading all of the posts I have some comments and personal observations:

1) I am not categorically against TV in automobiles. I am against distractions - they need to be minimized. A competent driver knows when to turn off controllable distractions. I turn off the radio when driving gets too intense. I would do the same with a TV.

2) The distraction level of the radio, a TV, or the MFD varies depending on the subject matter. Content demanding attention is more distracting, obviously. The consumption screen on the MFD is less distracting than the NAV screen. Music on the radio is less distracting than following a debate. A phone conversation is almost always distracting because the person on the other end demands your attention, although obviously some phone calls are more distracting that others.

3) Some drivers are more responisble than others. In this country we tend to legislate for the lowest common denominator. TV in cars aside, I've seen drivers shaving, putting on makeup, spraying their hair, changing clothes, and using two cell phones at the same time. We need better drivers, or fewer bad ones.

4) There were some posts comparing flying to driving. As a pilot, I can attest that flying and driving differ in the demands placed on the pilot and driver. With flying you generally have a lot more time to fuss with switches and play with radios. While the speeds are higher, the seperation is much greater. With driving you are always about a second from disaster. Flying switches to this mode during takeoffs and landings, and any time in traffic. In these situations, cockpit distractions become a huge problem. Otherwise you have a lot of time to sit back and chill out. This is true with older aircraft as well. Think of it as city driving verses empty interstate.

5) There was a thread on carputers a while back. The OP of that thread expressed suprise over the hostile replies in this thread verses his carputer thread. I think I can explain that. A carputer and a TV carry the same risk of driver distraction, so it's not that. What differs in these two threads is the OP's tone. The carputer OP posted as a technical challange. The OP of this thread attempted to do that, but took a fiercely defient and agreesive tone right from the first post, and has continued this tone through the entire thread. It's almost as if the OP said "I'm going to drive irresonsibly and it's none of your business, so shut the f*** up and get out of my thread...". If the OP wanted to get beat up, he couldn't have picked a better way. Instead, if the first post had simply said "I want to hook a TV up to the MFD, does anyone have an idea how to do this?", he would have receieved technical advice without as many safety comments. The aggresive posture throws fuel on the flames, and now it's hard to have a civil discussion since everyone has their blood up. Wording is very important, especially in written discussion where body langauge and facial expressions are not present.

That's my two cents worth, or maybe more like a nickle.

Tom

 

I am absolutely stupified at how everyone feels the need to tell the OP about how this is such a bad idea. Instead of having anything usefull about how to hook up a TV to the MFD. All we have is 15 pages of people acting like a know-it-all nanny. If you really wanted to say it was a bad idea, why didn't you show a bit of courtesy and start a new thread about it. This thread is pathetic.

Most of you are just talking out of your A@@ anyway. Show me some controlled study data or save it.

 

How is this any different then the P&G peeps that constantly watch their monitor trying to eeek out another 1mpg?

Get a gyro stabilized Sat antenna and watch Dish TV.

 

X2

Welcome to this forum. Its filled with negative Nellies that hijack threads and take the thread way off topic. They do it to me every time I post.

 

I just tried to find more information about this and failed. I obviously am not using the right search paramaters. Do you have a link to this information or is it from personal experience?

Thanks

 

They drive on the left side of the road in England, but I'm not going to try doing that in the US.

 

I think this is the Japanese Prius TV option.

toyota.jp > ƒIƒŠƒWƒiƒ‹ƒAƒNƒZƒTƒŠÂ[ > ƒiƒrƒQÂ[ƒVƒ‡ƒ“ > ’nÂãƒfƒWƒ^ƒ‹TVƒ`ƒ…Â[ƒiÂ[

Google translated version

Translated version of http://toyota.jp/dop/navi/lineup/option/digital_tv_tuner/index.html#TDN-H58R

 

The also stone women in Iran. I'm not going to suggest anyone do that here, and I don't need a controlled study to tell me it's wrong. And if anyone posts asking how to do it, I'll post to say that they shouldn't.

 

Thanks for the information.

If I'm reading the quote below correctly, then you can't watch TV or a DVD or an iPod video while the car is in motion.

安全のため、走行中一部操作・表示できない機能があります。​

For safety reasons, running some operations functions may not be shown.

また、テレビ放送・DVD再生・iPodビデオ再生など（前席ディスプレイ）は、安全のため走行中は画面が消え、音声だけになります。​

The television broadcast video iPod and DVD playback (previous seats displays), running for safety on the screen will disappear, only voice.
If I'm correct, then the argument that watching TV while driving is practiced in Japan isn't valid.

 

Asking how to stone women is a bit different that hooking up TV to the MFD. Still, people who fill up a thread with with posts about why not to do something, when the OP specifically requests the thread to remain a "how-to" thread not a "should-I" thread are rude and self-centered.

If you feel it is a bad idea, that is fine, but start your own thread about it. Of course, you can and will do whatever you want, but the polite thing would be to start your own thread debating the pros and cons.

 

I got the coolest little mod for my Prius. It picks up signals from this new thing called "radio" - you may want to Google this, I think it's going to be big. No more boring commutes, and I get to keep my eyes on the road to boot!

 

Sorry for being inpolite. I tend to get that way when people ask how to increase the chances of my wife and 2 year old daughter getting killed on the road.

 

I have no problem with someone listening to TV while they are driving. That's no different than listen to radio.

I could see some problems at stop lights where drivers become so engrossed in what they are watching, they don't move when the light changes.