While that’s annoying I will offer counterpoint: Think back to the early days of mobile phones. One of the primary reasons to get one was to maximize one’s productivity particularly while sitting in traffic which up until that point had been completely wasted time.
It really does not take much attention or brainpower to successfully or safely operate a motor vehicle that essentially parked or is just crawling along inches at a time, constantly following somebody else’s bumper in urban gridlock or on an overcrowded freeway. Mobile phones realize their maximum value in such situations, turning worthless, wasted, frustrating time into something that can actually be somewhat productive.
That said, people have abused and misused the technology. I see people blasting away in fast-moving, busy traffic or at other “higher mental workload” times distracted on their pocket rectangles. Not good, especially with the ever-increasing number of testosterone-oozing, aggro-ed, over-aggressive douches out there thrown into the mix.
The real solution to all this is self-driving cars which will allow people to comfortably ride along and use their travel time productively while simultaneously making the entire system better and safer for all by eliminating unpredictability and deviations in vehicle speed. As much as I like being in control of my own vehicle and the experience of driving, it has become a chore due to too many people and too many rules, lights, stop signs everywhere, etc. It’s just not all that fun anymore - usually. Trying to “dumb it down” and transform it into a completely worthless and frustrating expenditure of time is not something that’s going to offer a lot of appeal.
Yes, I agree that distracted driving is a real problem but until the system doesn’t make driving such a wasted expenditure of time, I don’t see the problem going away.
For one I do not need a “DND while driving” feature. I already have one - my decision to not pick up the device during “high workload” times while driving when I know my attention really does need to be on what’s going on outside. If I space out at a light and don’t catch it turning green, there’s always a helpful fellow motorist that will remind me with an incessant horn-blast about three milliseconds after the light changes, so I’m not too worried about that aspect either...
