Using a GPS receiver in a car and in a phone, disable the texting or other features when the two GPS signals report the same location.-- toodles, Nov 02 2009 For [bigsleep] http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/653Telecom NZ QuickChat [neutrinos_shadow, Nov 02 2009] Or just use GPS within a phone to bar texting over a certain speed. That way it'll work in all cars, not just your own.
Not many people would choose to have this though, and not many governments would be keen to legislate for it.-- wagster, Nov 02 2009 Is it possible to drive without thumbs? That could work.-- coprocephalous, Nov 02 2009 //Or just use GPS within a phone to bar texting over a certain speed. That way it'll work in all cars, not just your own.//
And trains...-- jtp, Nov 02 2009 Or rather, convert the text to speech.-- Jinbish, Nov 02 2009 just install a cellphone jammer in each new car, tied to the engine. If the car engine is running, no phone will work inside the car.
Doesn't stop people texting/phoning if the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, or if they are stuck in a traffic jam (provided they turn off the engine to save fuel or whatever).-- prufrax, Nov 02 2009 [bigsleep]: I was thinking of receiving text - but fair point.
I was involved in a research project that had this functionality as a subset. The innovation was a system that sought to tailor content delivery to the context of the user: while in the vehicle, any text services could be converted to text; while in meetings, incoming phone calls may be converted to text or blocke; video could be transcoded on the fly to fit a particular device or wireless capacity etc.-- Jinbish, Nov 02 2009 What about the passengers ? How do you discriminate just the driver ?-- 8th of 7, Nov 02 2009 //Why haven't we got voice SMS ?// Telecom NZ had (has?) this, brought in as competition for Vodafones txt capability in the early days. See link. And doesn't txt-to-speech and speech-to-txt kind of defeat the prurpose? Voice-mail works just the same (I still want the phone itself to run the voicemailbox, not the provider; I'm just not nerd enough to write the sofware myself. I have an HTC Titan, if anyone's looking for a programming project...).-- neutrinos_shadow, Nov 02 2009 No-one rides as a passenger in a car nowadays.-- pocmloc, Nov 02 2009 Could we just eliminate mobile phones?-- wagster, Nov 02 2009 And cars.-- pocmloc, Nov 03 2009 //How do you discriminate just the driver //
Just make sure they're a sheila, or something.-- Custardguts, Nov 03 2009 My phone has this neat application that allows me to connect to another person's phone anywhere in the world, and when I talk into my phone, they can hear me, even though they might be thousands of miles away. If everyone had this it could render texting obsolete.-- egbert, Nov 03 2009 When's the last time you were skint, UB?-- wagster, Nov 04 2009 //I've never quite understood why you'd send someone a cryptic message in gobbledygook //You'd have to ask Grand Admiral Dönitz-- coprocephalous, Nov 04 2009 hmm... how about "texting-only" lanes with barriers between them and the other lanes ?-- FlyingToaster, Nov 04 2009 Look the solution is simple. Text while driving and get caught and we cut off your thumb. Second offenders loose the right to drive entirely for the duration of their lives.-- WcW, Nov 04 2009 random, halfbakery