iDriveFocused.com. Driving while distracted is bad for your health. Here's why.

 Yesterday, just as ZoomSafer was releasing our new Bluetooth Beta software, there was other news in the world about distracted driving and Bluetooth car kits; Ford announced that the next release of their Ford SYNC car kit will have a "Do Not Disturb" button which, when pressed, will block all incoming calls, text messages, typing on the keypad and will narrow some other features like navigation. To which my first response would have to be... "wait, the Ford SYNC software has features that call for a driver to be typing on a keypad?!"

That point aside, this is a pretty obvious example of Ford attempting to respond to public pressure against distracted driving by releasing a feature that seems to at least take a step in the right direction towards making our roads safer. And it IS a step in the right direction, don't get me wrong. It's obviously much better than the lobbying industry's response to the rising anti-distracted driving sentiment anyway.

But there's a serious flaw here, and its what reduces this new feature from what could have been a real step forward in the fight to prevent distracted driving, to more of a PR stunt to get some friendly media coverage. I've written before about the evidence that drivers won't voluntarily stop texting while driving, and unfortunately this "Do Not Disturb" feature does nothing to address that; it still depends on the user "opting in."

The truth is, that will rarely happen. This feature has no enforcement mechanism for drivers who might not WANT to put it in "Do Not Disturb" mode, like teenagers - no way to ensure that they press that button and no way to check later to see if they didn't. And even those drivers with personal motivations of social responsibility are actually given a barrier between them and their good intentions: they have to remember to press that button or else by default they'll get all their texts, emails and calls. 

ZoomSafer is a much stronger solution - teenagers and reluctant drivers can be forced to be safe, while those who want to help themselves don't have to worry about activating the software manually, as it's automatic. And with our new Bluetooth Beta that can activate off a connection with Bluetooth car kits like Ford SYNC itself, we're excited to be taking the lead to enforce and automate the safe-driving policies of our customers. I applaud Ford for their awareness of the problem, but with the release of this still a year off and lacking automation, they have a long way to go towards really addressing the issue.