Car manufacturers are forever introducing snazzy new features, but whoever
came up with the idea of Internet access for drivers deserves a lecture on road
safety. The offenders are General Motors鈥� Net car
(www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/21204.html)
and Vauxhall鈥檚 Omega V8.com
(www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3896544,00.html).
Both are replete with gadgets such as night vision head-up displays and voice activation
to allow 鈥渟afe鈥� Internet access while driving.
Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun Microsystems, has been enlisted by
General Motors to boost support for the concept. He apparently believes that
cars are little more than browsers with tyres, and envisions the Net car using
the hitherto wasted time spent stuck in traffic to bombard drivers with adverts.
But why on earth would anyone want to subject themselves to such an assault?
One website you might want to visit while you鈥檙e cruising the streets is
the wonderfully paranoid Scotti School of Defensive Driving
(www.ssdd.com).
After all, with so many Netheads out there the streets won鈥檛 be safe. 鈥淎lthough
drivers must be trained never to stop a car under any conditions, there may be a
time when stopping is unavoidable,鈥� it says. Presumably, it means petrol
stations and traffic lights.
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Meanwhile, John Coyne, mayor of Brooklyn, Ohio, and a self-appointed
guardian of road safety, has vowed to put a stop to 鈥渟urfing cars鈥�. Coyne was
the first to introduce compulsory seat belt laws in an American city, and now
plans legislation to curb mobile phone use while driving
(www.newsnet5.com/news/stories/news-990310-223048.html).
He鈥檒l be a formidable adversary, and he
has certainly got a point. According to research published in the New
England Journal of Medicine (vol 336, p 453), using a phone while driving
leads to a fourfold increase in your chances of having an accident. So just
imagine what mobile surfing could do.
