So much for new and un-molested

He didn't say it should be done. He said it will be done. People will still do it, even sitting next to a cop inline in traffic.

 

Woooah... what? That isn't safe.

Texting while driving or stopped at lights (ie. any time you're not actually parked) is illegal here. You can use your phone for voice calls or as a music player but only if it's secured in a commercial holder correctly attached to the car or if doing this doesn't require you to physically touch the phone in any way. You're allowed to touch your phone to hand it to a passenger, but that's all.

People here have been done for texting/calling from their lap.

 

It's illegal here too. But it doesn't stop anybody. What it has done is taken people who were looking between both screens in the same field of view but with different focal points to the driving field of view and their crotch which is both different focal length and different field of views. So when looking at their crotch texting, they see nothing going on around them instead of seeing mostly blurry things around them.

I argue that blurry blobs is safer than being blind. Texting is not going anywhere. In the past 8 months I have used less than 200 minutes of voice. I go through 3000+ text messages and 5GB - 8GB of data per month on my cell. Myself and many others in this generation do not answer voice calls. If it is important, you will text. If it is your elder mother/father, you will answer the call. Otherwise it is spam because everyone knows to text. Even my voicemail says if it is important text me, otherwise all voicemails are deleted every 2 weeks without being listened to.

The voice dictation and transcription features make it much safer. I can press the one and only button on my phone's faceplate without looking, it beeps and tells me to talk I do, and it gets sent. Systems like the Prius where it reads incoming texts are also a step in the right direction. But these are new technologies and will take 10-20 years after it is standard in all cars to where most people have it. In the mean time, we will have people driving down the highway staring at their crotch and not looking ahead of them.

 

Are you referring to the phone's ability to read texts which is BT linked to the car's audio?

 

My phone's "car mode" does that, but I thought the new Entune's actually displayed the text on the MFD and read it aloud? I do not have it, and there is a lot of confusion over this feature because it is so convoluted to setup, so it could be wrong.

 

No, it does not do that. Now I'm disappointed that it's lacking that feature.

 

Just checked Toyota, and they say it does (note the underlined/bolded bit): Sending and Receiving Messages

Checking Received Messages [12]

1. When a message is received, a pop-up window is displayed on the screen
2. Press the PHONE button on the faceplate
3. Touch Messages
4. Touch Inbox
5. Select message to be viewed (or read by vehicle system if in motion)
6. Message is displayed if at stop, or read aloud if in motion
7. Touching the envelope icon on any of the phone screens also will bring up messages
   
   New Message [envelope icon with + sign]
   Read Message [open envelope icon]
   Unread Message [closed envelope icon]

 

Well I stand corrected . Apparently it does have this feature, but requires MAP on the phone, which from what I've been reading, my iphone 5 does not have...which explains why I don't get any notifications via entune. I'm gonna go test it out anyhow.

 

My C will read them back, but I have to visually select the text to read back... which seems kind of redundant in a hands free feature. My phone will read it back and all I have to do is tell it to read back.

 

Perhaps I didn't enable the features on my phone, as indicated in this thread: iPhone 4G, Entune and 2012 Prius 4 | PriusChat

Gonna head down to my car and check it out now.

 

MAP was added in iOS 6. I thought the iPhone 5 came with iOS 6, but if it didn't it can be upgraded.

The Australian audio will receive texts and can read them out loud. It will not display the text on screen if the car is moving, but it will still read them out. Our display audio has the ability to fire off canned replies, but the iPhone won't play ball.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I already forgot about the extra step required as pointed out in that thread. That is so irritating.

 

Yup it works now after I checked the notifications option in the phone's BT menu.

 

This happens all too often. Glad that you're not hurt... at least as far as you know.
Welcome to the Prius Inuendo Club -- gettin'' it in the rear end that is ;-)

I got hit form behind by a 70's something woman in an older full size Chevy at a
stoplight just after we passed a yard sale on the left. Guess where she was looking.
No skid marks, she hadn't even hit the brakes. Hit me so hard I skidded into the car
in front. !@#$% damage on both ends.
I have USAA too, and they were great. This included not accepting the car first time
from the repair shop.

 

I have strong doubts concerning the use of cell phone blocker in a vehicle.

Despite their illegality in the USA, they have some attractiveness in a stationary
application. I have an acquaintance who employs one in his suit coat breast pocket
when he takes his wife out to dinner. He says, 'It greatly enhances the experience
when I'm spending $100 and more to have a quiet meal.' Well, OK, but…

I can't see that creating a floating dead cell phone zone around a vehicle would
improve safety on the road. Most likely, it would result in those folks whose reception
is affected taking their eyes and focus off the road and their surroundings. As a
minimum they'd be looking at their phone to repeatedly one-touch redial. When
that fails, I can see them spending even more eyes-off-the-road time trying to locate
the 10 digit number in memory and then redialing that.

The resulting anger and frustration and attendant inattention can only lead to an
more unfocused, more unsafe driver, now a greater risk not only to you but to others.

From the point of view of safety, the use of a cell phone blocker in a vehicle would
seem to be counter productive at best… addressing only the ego of the user.

 

Another bad thing: this kills cell phone batteries, because the phone works harder to phone home. Why doesn't he just put it in airplane mode?

 

Yes, put your phone on airplane mode, turn your phone off, or even divert all voice calls to voicemail if you still want text messages to come through. Lots of simple, legal choices. This isn't a "hot topic", rather the devices you are casually posting a link to are flat out illegal in the US and in Australia and are completely pointless for the scenario you describe.

 

'merican TL;DR version at the bottom.

This isn't exactly true. The way a cellphone works is that it attaches to a control channel that is advertising the phone carrier's ID, or if it can't find that, it attaches to a control channel of a "roaming partner" that advertises in its authorized carrier IDs list. When a jammer is employed, these control channels are masked by broad spectrum noise. Since the phone doesn't see any control channels, it doesn't try to connect to anything. Some models will try about once a minute a full power burst on the last known control control channel, but the amount of power utilized is about the same as running on standby. Without a tool or an engineering phone, there would be no way to tell that this was an active effect vice something just passively blocking the signal, like being inside of a tunnel.

Putting his phone in airplane mode wouldn't matter, as the "quiet meal" means he's masking the phones of the people around him that are being unduely rude and disturbing other diners for calls that probably could wait 30-60 minutes. Seriously folks, nothing is so important that it can't wait until after you eat. Just ask every year before the 21st century.

In the US, there's only one, and I've seen a movie theater sued for trying it. Electromagnetic Field Shielding Fabrics - I recommend the Nickle/Copper rip-stop fabric. The most power a cell tower will put out is 10W or 40dB. A common cell tower antenna will give about 30dBi of gain, so we're up to 70dB or the equivilent of 10,000W. The lowest signal a cellphone will accept is about -115dB. Count for air gap coming off of the tower at max power, (about 25dB) you're down to 45dB or 32mW just in the first meter from the antenna. Seriously, power loss from the initial air gap is THAT bad. The fabric I recommended does about 80dB of isolation, which drops out total to -35dB, if we were 1 meter from the antenna on the tower. That leaves us with 80dB left before your cellphone decides it won't accept the control channel. We're going to assume for the moment that there's nothing but my fabric between your phone and the cell tower antenna. Using "Free Space Path Loss" for this, which will be 20dB for every 10 meters, that means you can be up to 80 meters (265.6 feet for us bass-ackward 'mericans) from the tower and you'll still get at least intermittent "coverage". Unfortunately, "Non-Free Space Path Loss" is the most likely unless you're at Burning Man or some other out door festival. That's 40dB of loss for every 10 meters. Yep: 40 meters or 132.8 feet. If you can't see the tower from where you're sitting, you aren't likely to get reception.

TL;DR version: Airplane mode doesn't stop other people from shutting their traps while you're trying to enjoy a nice meal. RF fabrics are made for what that guy wanted to do, but only if the place is covered in it. Be polite folks, wait 30-60 minutes for that call so others can enjoy their meal. 'merica!

-Steve