Good news for Luddites

[Jiquay]

I got my new FTCW last week. I ended up with an XLT, with full Sync audio system.

The salesman asked me if I wanted help to connect my phone to the Sync. "Sure," I said as I pulled my DumbPhone out & flipped it open...

 

"Euh, ummm..."

 

The good news is YES! Sync does, in fact, hook up to a flippie with Bluetooth... It needs a bit of patience & creativity, but it CAN be done. The voice commands work to make a call, and the phone won't do a lot more than that anyway...

 

GK

Edited June 24, 2018 by Jiquay

[Jiquay]

For medical reasons, I can't use a touch-screen. 

[mrtn]

Any touch screen?

[Jiquay]

Esssentiial TTremoor - II gett reesullts likke thhis...

 

8-)

 

GK

[Fifty150]

Voice activated might work for you.  Siri.  Alexa.

[Mike Chell]

DON'T !!!

Texting and driving is the worst, admittedly.  But the next worst drivers I "experience" on the roadways, people talking on their phones.  Holding it in your hand isn't the problem, so hands free isn't any better.  

It's the amount of concentration one uses up listening, deciding and responding on the phone.  None of those actions are as easy as they are in person.

 

I think ALL cell phone activity should be banned while driving.  And for you tech addicted ... fools ... yes, you CAN drive, and LIVE, without using your electronic communication devices.

[Fifty150]

I remember how distracting it was to change the 8 track.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

6 hours ago, Mike Chell said:

I think ALL cell phone activity should be banned while driving.  And for you tech addicted ... fools ... yes, you CAN drive, and LIVE, without using your electronic communication devices.

 

Well said sir. There is absolutely NOTHING that cannot wait until you stop the vehicle.

[mrtn]

People have different abilities. 100% restrictive rules are counterproductive and will not work anyway. You should be able to determine what's good for you. I'm pretty sure an air traffic controller will do just fine answering a phone call on Bluetooth while some person who's not capable of chewing a gum while taking a bath due to slow cranking brain should just wait till he/she's stopped.

 

But I'm all for enforcing handsfree setup in car. Now that wireless carplay systems are becoming more available you can just have the car automatically disable your phone's advanced features and provide you with phone calls and navigation on car display.

[Fifty150]

The first cell phones were actually car phones.  Handset mounted onto the dash.  Back when Miami Vice was still on the air.  I had more hair on my head, and everybody else had powdered sugar on their nose from eating too many donuts.

[mrtn]

Yeah, I remember this one (which you obviously have not seen ever): 

 

[Beta Don]

21 hours ago, mrtn said:

 100% restrictive rules are counterproductive . . . .  You should be able to determine what's good for you. 

 

Until the guy who *thinks he can* drifts into my lane and hits me head on

 

My daughter *thinks she can* . . . . but she has literally bent 6 or 7 wheels on her last 2 cars when she drifts off the road to the right while messing with her phone  -  There are several hundred drivers out there who have no idea just how lucky they are

 

Don

[Fifty150]

I know your daughter's virtual twin.  She ran into me, while I was in the crosswalk.

 

 

i was on foot!

[mrtn]

Well, I once grabbed a my tablet pc from the passenger seat looking away for a split second. During that time a neurotic lady slammed her brakes in front of me because of a blinking green (it blinks twice to indicate the following yellow and red over here so people farther away know to slow down) so I crashed my TC in her Benz. She did say afterwards that she shouldn't have braked but it was too late. Lesson learned for me, and her.

[Fifty150]

It happens.  

 

Everything is a distraction.  And even without added distractions, collisions still occur.  People have crashed their cars since there were cars to crash.  But that doesn't make it okay to keep adding to our list of things that distract us while driving.  

 

I remember my dad telling me that cupholders were unsafe.  This was back when not all cars had cupholders, and I bought a couple of those cupholders that clipped onto the door.  You let people drink while they drive, and they will swallow wrong and choke, spill all over themselves, et cetera.  He was right, of course.  I've spilled more coffee on myself than I care to admit, and I've choked on fluids going down the wrong way.  

[Mike Chell]

On 6/25/2018 at 5:04 PM, mrtn said:

100% restrictive rules are counterproductive and will not work anyway. You should be able to determine what's good for you.

 

3 hours ago, mrtn said:

Well, I once grabbed a my tablet pc from the passenger seat looking away for a split second. During that time a neurotic lady slammed her brakes in front of me because of a blinking green

(Lesson learned for me, and her.)

 

Yet, you didn't learn the lesson.  A "split second" of distraction ... and your close proximity to her rear bumper.  And you still think it's okay for people to have distractions of any kind.

"Determining what's good for you" is RARELY what's ACTUALLY good for you.  Look at all the people who KNOW that smoking or eating too much is bad for you, yet they still convince themselves it's okay.  Humans are selfish creatures and "good for me" is rarely "good for everybody else".  Texting or talking on a phone while driving is proof of that.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

And we have autonomous cars to look forward to...…..allowing drivers the freedom to roll their doobies, mix their drinks, play with their phones and gaming electronics unimpeded by the perceived need to pay attention to the road. Necessary activities to be sure.

[Fifty150]

On 6/25/2018 at 2:04 PM, mrtn said:

100% restrictive rules are counterproductive and will not work anyway.

 

 

 

 

I'm with you.  We don't need more laws.  We're not enforcing the laws that we already have on the books.  

 

I'm all for less government.  

 

But those kinds of topics are for discussion in other forums.  

 

Let's get back to the fun stuff, like laughing at 70's haircuts and 80's technology.  

 

Sort of reminds me of the first time my beeper went off as I was cruising down A1A, Beachfront Avenue.  Almost spilled the beverage I had in my clip-on cup holder.

 

 

 

[mrtn]

I had that holder, got it at MacDonald's drive in. It was the only cup holder in that car.

[mrtn]

9 hours ago, Mike Chell said:

Yet, you didn't learn the lesson.  A "split second" of distraction ... and your close proximity to her rear bumper.

 

Of course I did. I have kept a bigger gap since that event and quit messing with random electronics during driving. 

[Mike Chell]

11 hours ago, OLDSCHOOLFOOL said:

And we have autonomous cars to look forward to ...

I'm hoping for that.  As much as I like driving, I also like dozing off.  My hour drive to and from work could be power naps, if my car didn't need ANY input from me !!!

 

3 hours ago, Fifty150 said:

I'm with you.  We don't need more laws.  We're not enforcing the laws that we already have on the books.  

I'm all for less government.  

Agreed ... this is a topic for less friendly forums.  But most will also agree with all of your statements.  Many don't know what "more" or "less" government means, and will protect their uneducated opinion on the matter with the vilest language.

 

2 hours ago, mrtn said:

 

Of course I did. I have kept a bigger gap since that event and quit messing with random electronics during driving. 

Excellent !!!  I wasn't trying to be "mean" or anything.  But with above comments ... many people have close calls (bent rims and near misses) and still don't get it.  

The human brain is a simple computer.  We have lots of storage space.   We seem to be able to do multiple things at once, but that's not the case.  Our minds can only concentrate on one function at a time. 

Even "air traffic controllers" ... they aren't better at juggling multiple functions at once, they're just able to concentrate on the functions of screen watching and communication to the exclusion of all else.  Their minds can bounce back and forth with much greater ease than most.  But if one of those functions is distracting, then the other fails.  I was in the air wing ... and had the opportunity to be in the tower a few times.  You can watch the controllers concentrate on the screen ... THEN talk to the pilots.  They are rarely trying to do both at the exact same time.

They probably aren't any better drivers than any other professional who has strong focus at work.

[OLDSCHOOLFOOL]

[Mike Chell]

That's a great meme!

[Fifty150]

Make me think of that auto-pilot car that struck the pedestrian, while the human behind the wheel was watching some sort of entertainment on her phone.  So sad.  

 

In theory, with all vehicles automated, and in communications with the municipal traffic control system, as well as other vehicles in the proximity, there would be no stop and go traffic.  All traffic would flow seamlessly, in a safe speed, and all collisions would be avoided.  If all vehicles were automated, they could drive 75 mph, bumper to bumper & fender to fender.  All vehicles would be parked properly with the minimum needed space between bumpers, and no  bumpers would be tapped.  You wouldn't have some idiot taking two parking spaces, or leaving 10 feet between bumpers.

 

Mike Chell could commute with a pillow & sleep mask.  I could drink a 6 pack.

 

I've been waiting for the day of self driving cars since the movie "Total Recall" with the "Johnny Cab".  Now if only we can get robot maids at home, like The Jeffersons.

[Mike Chell]

Yea for the future, Fifty !!!

I grew up ready sci-fi ... fully believing we'd be "there" by now.  I liked the cars of "Demolition man".  Or the more recent film, "I, Robot".

 

I never expected transporters, always realizing the impossibility of turning matter into energy without the accompanying megaton explosion.  BUT, I did expect flying cars with self driving capabilities and cyborg alternatives to growing old and dying.