Yesterday saw the change in penalty in the UK for driving while on a mobile phone.
This will doubtless cause a surge in the sales of various handsfree kits, bluetooth headsets etc.
Cue collective hand-rubbing of technology providers.
It struck me that there is a far better solution to this. If every mobile manufacturer used the same connector then car manufacturers could start to have built-in hands free without having to worry about what phone their customers might have. Obviously, some high-end cars already have Bluetooth etc, but for the cost of a simple connector and a microphone, every new car could be built with the capability of providing safe, hands-free driving. The world would be a safer place, etc etc.
Of course, if you start down that road, then you might as well start to campaign for speed limiting of cars too. That might stop a good few accidents too, but just like mobile phone connector convergence, won’t happen for a long time, if ever.
You’d think it would be ages until such a thing appeared, but speed limited cars (or rather the imposition inside your car of a device which reports you for speeding) was part of a report by Douglas Alexander for the government yesterday.
they’ll never take me alive!! (at least, not at that time of the morning on the M*)