Now Obama Wants To Ban Navigation Apps
by Whoopie • 16 June, 2014 • Crime, Politics, Tech • 0 Comments
Getting directions on the road from Google Maps and other smartphone apps is a popular alternative to the expensive navigation aids included in some cars. The apps are also a gray area when it comes to laws banning the use of cellphones or texting while driving.
The Transportation Department wants to enter the argument.
The department is intensifying its battle against distracted driving by seeking explicit authority from Congress to regulate navigation aids of all types, including apps on smartphones.
The measure, included in the Obama administration’s proposed transportation bill, would specify that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has the authority to set restrictions on the apps and later order changes if they are deemed dangerous, much the way it currently regulates mechanical features of cars.
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Great, if they have their way being caught with a ‘nav app’ on your phone while driving will be tantamount to kiddie porn. Even if you aren’t using it, some zealous cop or prosecutor will claim it shows ‘intent’ to violate the law.
The government keeps slapping us back and forth like a ping-pong ball. On one hand they want everyone to carry a GPS equipped smart phone “in case of emergency” so first responders can locate you quickly.
Actually what they want is the ability to snoop on your every movement. Increasingly the police are equipped with gizmos that download your contacts, pics, text messages, phone call and location history. And the courts have ruled that the police don’t even need probable cause or a warrant to seize that info.
But then, if you happen to have the phone with you and switched on while driving, that’s a crime too.
Of course automobile manufacturers support the restrictions. They want a monopoly on dashboard mounted navigation systems. They can jack up the cost of the car by several hundred dollars and force you to subscribe to some service that pays a kickback to the car company.
dash board map
Like that silly ‘On Star’ button. A $200 built in cellphone that only dialed one number and couldn’t be put in your pocket.
Somehow, using that stuff isn’t ‘distracted driving’. Why, because the screen is bigger and it’s mounted permanently on the dashboard right under your nose?
Whether it’s a tablet or cellphone, you don’t even need to look at the screen because every device offers verbal turn by turn directions, no different than if a human passenger was reading you directions out loud.
What gets me, if having a cellphone in your car is so damn distracting, how do cops manage to drive and use all the electronic crap like laptops, radios, radar, Lo-Jack detector and god only knows what other technology that they don’t want us serfs to know about.
Read more at
http://blurbrain.com/now-obama-wants-ban-navigation-apps/#JilHTL1SeZsjZU97.99Read more at
http://blurbrain.com/now-obama-wants-ban-navigation-apps/#JilHTL1SeZsjZU97.99