Cell phones in the car can be tempting, especially if you are receiving text message notifications. Although driving requires 100 percent of a driver’s attention, the sound of a cell phone ping often gets the best of us.
In fact, at any given time throughout the day, approximately 660,000 drivers are attempting to use their phones while behind the wheel of an automobile, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
For this reason, the software developers of Apple Inc. have announced that the new iOS 11 update, coming this fall, will feature a new “Do Not Disturb” feature that will disable smartphones from receiving alerts while a driver is behind the wheel.
Apple iPhones are some of the most highly used cell phones in the U.S., with more than one billion iPhones sold to date.
The announcement of the new feature was made at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference by Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi last Monday.
“It’s all about keeping your eyes on the road,” Federighi said, “When you are driving you don’t need to be responding to these kind of messages.” And as he continued, the screen displayed at the San Jose Convention Center showed alerts for Tinder and games coming onto a phone.
According to the details released at the conference, the “Do Not Disturb” feature detects when a user is driving and, when turned on, will automatically mute all incoming notifications. As the phone receives incoming text messages or social media notifications, the iPhone screen will remain dark.
The new feature also includes the option of sending an automated message to reply to received text messages, which will state that you are currently driving and that you will reply once you arrive at your destination. However, its effectiveness has already been brought into question due to the fact that users will still have optimal control over the feature. The “Do Not Disturb While Driving” setting must be turned on by the user, and drivers also have the option of allowing certain contacts to get through while the feature is active. Federighi said this was included so that, “you have the piece of mind that you can get contacted,” even when the feature is on.
Apple’s decision to integrate this new setting comes after a lawsuit filed by a family in December 2016, after their 5-year-old was killed by a distracted driver who was allegedly using FaceTime video chat at the time of the accident. The lawsuit focuses on the fact that there was no safety feature set to block the use of FaceTime while driving.
Another parent who experienced the loss of a child due to distracted driving is Joel Feldman, founder of the advocacy group End Distracted Driving. Feldman welcomed Apple’s new feature while still raising concerns about its problem-solving ability.
“We should not lose sight of the fact that drivers using the iPhone are involved in thousands of crashes,” Feldman told the Huffington Post. “Crashes involving iPhones will continue.”
Currently, only 14 states have specific rules prohibiting drivers from using hand-held devices behind the wheel.