Slightly OT...
The prob with driving while using gizmos, imo, is that one person's skill level
is maybe "better" by a factor of 10 compared to many out there on the highways.

I am not a long distance trucker, but the majority of our annual ~30,000+
miles in cars & m'cycles is on joy rides and trips. It is no surprise that the
skill level of many of the drivers is suspect; add in the current craze of
continuous cell phone use and texting, TV watching, etc., and most of those
"geniuses" don't know if there fanny is bored or punched, let alone what
the hell is going on around them at nearly 100 feet per second.

Rant over...
GL,mD

[email protected]

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to make the schlep home from Santa Clara to LV w/o tunes and phone. I enjoy driving and will take the infamous Dinan test road (CA25) and then the 198 to hook up with the California autobahn (the I-5). Looking forward to Tehachapi pass too. That's a fun stretch. However, on the 5 and the 15 the tunes will be rockin' as those are some boring ass stretches of nothingness. Ooooh, look, creosote bush. Oooooh. Meh.

I have no problem with vehicle sound systems, my point was that picking songs off an iPod with a click wheel can be dangerous. I have an iPod in my vehicle, but it is integrated into the vehicle, and I control it without navigating a click wheel. I think a phone in a car is a valuable safety device. I keep mine in my trunk in case I get stranded.

It is all about degrees; I think that TV in motion in the front seat is absurd. I have no problem with a DVD for the kids in the back seat. I think texting should be banned at all times. I am sure some feel that their texting is safe.

I was almost hit on a bicycle last weekend. Driver pulled up to a four way stop, on my right. He had the right of way, being on the right. He paused, and I assumed he was letting me go (I was climbing up a hill on the bike, and it is a common courtesty). He waited until I was one third of the way through the intersection, and then gunned it in front of me. Then I saw that he was almost entirely focused on his cell phone glued to his ear, he had never seen me. I was still covering my brakes, because I didn't trust him and I value my life, so I was fine. The entire incident was due to a cell phone distraction. If we had collided, he could have been assessed blame due to a distraction, but it would have been small solace (having been in bike accidents before).

what?

Once you make the decision not to use a cell phone while a vehicle is in motion, the trunk (or glovebox) becomes a good place to keep a phone. If I put it on the seat next to me, I find that it is a distraction.

Guess you guys have never had to convince a dealer not to order the bluetooth module either.

I find that the NAV system is more of a distraction.

Maybe NAV should be tied to the parking brake so that it can't be used while the vehicle is in motion.

I don't set it up when moving, but just following along can be a distraction.

I believe in civil rights, and don't like the Government controlling me.
I think that seat belt laws are bad even thought I wear mine all the time.

That's pretty impressive discipline. Do you go through this routine everytime you enter/exit the car?

Some companies do this, Nissan/Infinity comes to mind.