I think what frustrates me most about texting drivers isn't texting in traffic, those folks are pretty much Darwin award nominees and will not be with us for long, no, it's that everyone seems to think that it's ok to text at a red light.
I have been guilty of this myself.
It is completely safe to do, but the fact that every single driver in line now seems to need an extra three or four seconds between cars to realise that the person in front of them has already advanced really gets on my nerves.
Getting stuck through successive red lights at a single intersection because of this gap lag is a major contributor to road-rage.

Could this problem not be eliminated by installing a cell phone proximity jammer within the steering wheel air-bag housing as a standard feature on all new vehicles?
It would minimize disconnection of the device since tampering with air-bags voids most warrantees.

This would ensure that only the driver is incapable of texting while the engine is running.
Sure there will be people who turn their cars off at red lights, but the number would be significantly lower.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 29 2015

It might make more sense to attach a signal jammer to the accelerator pedal. So, when the first person in line steps on the gas because the light changed, all the others in line get broken cell connections.
-- Vernon, Sep 30 2015


Or just stitch the whole thing about with a, perhaps translucent (safety and all that rot), metal mesh with accompanying dangling grounding appendage, thereby turning the whole sunlight-burning trap into a Faraday cage. [+]
-- absterge, Sep 30 2015


I'd be one of those that turned their car off. Sorry people, but when I'm done texting, I then need to apply lipstick too. So be prepared to sit through a few lights, needlessly.

Signed; The inconsiderate asshole you yell swear words at that don't faze me a bit.
-- blissmiss, Sep 30 2015


A cell phone jammer in every car? I can't see any way this could go wrong.
-- Voice, Sep 30 2015


Hard to see how a failure to send will make the texting process shorter for a still working phone, unless the seat applies a strong shock at every light.
-- 4and20, Sep 30 2015


//It could also update your status to a sad face.// And soon, your phone's AI will forget how to distinguish itself from you, and the lines between human and technology will become irreversibly blurred, until you're not even sure if you are a person or an AI on your phone.
-- DIYMatt, Sep 30 2015



random, halfbakery