A few years ago, a Florida man was fined $48,000 by the Federal Communications Commission for using illegal signal jammers during commuting to prevent nearby drivers from using their signals. You want to use your mobile phone. I can tell. I bet you can too. In California and at least a dozen other states, holding a mobile phone is illegal. But this does not stop people from doing so. Throughout the day, when you encounter awkward, self-deceiving fools on the street, they threaten themselves and their surroundings by speaking or texting, the days pass by.
This is why I urge the automotive industry to incorporate signal interference technology into the steering wheel so that the driver (rather than the passengers) cannot succumb to the temptation to use the device when using 2,000 pounds of steel at speeds of more than 60 miles to control for an hour. True, things are complicated. Sacramento’s advocacy organization President of Automotive Reliability and Safety Rosemary Shahan said: “If parents are allowed to choose the right footsteps and develop safe driving habits, this will be a real safety benefit.”
She told me: “But if the jammer is a way to change the behavior of all drivers, those with the worst phone performance are unlikely to be inclined to purchase this option.” If this technology is mandatory, Shahan Say: “How can I close the road in an unsafe emergency, or use a phone to navigate or get directions? Can an emergency call be reached?
These are big problems. But we face a big problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration pointed out that 37,133 people were killed in a car accident last year. Distracted drivers affected more than 3,000 of these deaths. Every year, thousands of people are injured, but the driver turns a blind eye. I contacted a consortium of automakers in an industrial group to find out where the automakers are. Bryan Goodman, a spokesman for the organization, said automakers are taking this issue seriously.
He said: “We all agree that the hands on the steering wheel and the eyes on the road are still essential for safe driving.” However, Goodman insists that industry can only do many things. He sent me an email with a link to the FCC page of the problem. It said: “Federal law prohibits the operation, placing on the market or sale of any gps jammer equipment, including equipment that interferes with radio and personal communication services (PCS), police radar, GPS (Global Positioning System) and wireless network services (WiFi). The FCC undoubtedly pointed out: “These devices seriously endanger public safety communications and may prevent you and others from making emergency calls. Interference can also interfere with law enforcement officers’ communications.”
P. Michele Ellison, director of the agency’s law enforcement agency, said on the website: “Jammers pose a serious security risk.” “In the coming weeks and months, we will pass The partnership with law enforcement agencies has stepped up efforts to combat those who continue to violate the law.” The agency lives in a world where low-power signal jammers can reach a range of 30 feet, while more advanced equipment can stop all players within the size of a football field. transmission. This clearly raises questions about public safety. However, if the steering wheel with a range of only a few centimeters can use a small-scale locking technology, which is not enough to affect vehicles in the area or even other occupants, but is enough to meet the needs of the driver to remain stupid?
What if the technology is flexible enough not to interfere with medical devices such as pacemakers or insulin pumps? Still with streaming music service? What if it has nothing to do with law enforcement or emergency calls? Todd Humphreys, an engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said: “It can be done.” “Correctly calibrated, the blockage will be enough to overwhelm the driver’s phone near the steering wheel, but not enough to overwhelm the passengers. Phone.” He said that the jammer can use an algorithm to adjust its output relative to the change in cell signal strength while the vehicle is driving, so that the interference field remains consistent. However, there are always artificial factors. Humphreys correctly pointed out that some drivers use their fingers to pull their fingers (in my case, not his words) to induce them to place their phones at a certain distance from their arms or tilt them backwards to bypass the interference field.
He said: “This may lead to a more dangerous situation than we want to prevent.” Virginia Tech Hume National Security and Technology Center Executive Director T. Charles Clancy has the same idea. He said: “If you text and drive now, you will use each wing span to circumvent interference technology.” A. Lee Swindlehurst, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of California, Irvine, said this technique “no matter where it is All hold his phone, they can find a sweet place, only the driver’s device is stuck”.
He said this is technically feasible, “but this will be a challenging design.” Maybe we don’t want to get stuck in traffic. Instead, we may equip all mobile phones so that when their sensors and cameras detect motion or when users see the user quickly raise and lower their eyes while driving, they do not allow text messages. Marwan Krunz, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Arizona, said it is also possible to develop a jammer technology that can block incoming signals, but not outgoing calls that solve emergency situations.