Just after new evidence has come out showing that various driving-while-texting bans have had the opposite effect, by causing people to just keep on texting, but do so by holding their phone lower so cops can't see it (but also so they are paying even less attention to the road), Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood now wants to make our roads even more dangerous by trying to ban pretty much all driver talking in a car, with the exception (so far) of talking to other passengers. He wants to ban all mobile phone talking by drivers, even if it's handsfree, and he wants to extend that to vehicle information systems like OnStar or GPS systems.

Again, we've discussed repeatedly that we agree such things can be quite dangerous, though you can argue if talking to OnStar or to someone on the phone is really that much more dangerous than talking to a passenger. However, it's becoming increasingly clear that these sorts of laws don't actually help. They don't stop people from doing these actions, and seem to only get more people doing them in even more dangerous ways. Continuing down this path, that already doesn't work, is a huge mistake, and you would think that someone in a position like LaHood would actually pay attention to the evidence that this isn't working, and wouldn't suggest making the problem worse.

Of course, if this ban does go into effect, and the reports of accidents continue to rise, how long will it be until LaHood also bans talking to passengers in your car?

It's become quite common these days for various local governments to pass laws forbidding the use of mobile phones while driving (though, most allow the use of a hands free kit, which might not be any safer). However, one truck driver in Germany figured out a loophole that got him off the hook: he claimed he wasn't talking on the phone, but just using a recently charged mobile phone to warm his ears -- and the court believed him after he showed an itemized bill that showed no phone call at the time (found via Fark, of course). The man claims he had an earache, and that the heater in the truck cab took too long to warm up, so he was using the phone instead -- though, you can understand why the police officer might not have believed him.

Johnson Controls, a leading provider of automotive sub-systems, has been granted a patent for a "Wireless Communication System That Enables 'Hands-free' Cellular Phone Use in Automobiles." Laws requiring hands-free driving are already enforced in a few jurisdictions, and are set to hit California in July of this year. With these laws, it's nice to know that a method for using Bluetooth as a hands-free conduit to the car's embedded radio and speakers is a patented idea. This way, we can be assured that the quality of implemented solutions is maintained, and that the inventors of this innovative idea are duly rewarded (in perpetuity) for their toil. With this legalized monopoly on Hands-Free car integration, Johnson Controls will now have the financial incentive to focus on the important inventions of tomorrow. Some may argue that a Bluetooth hands-free link is obvious, and doesn't merit a patent. Others will ask silly questions like "Isn't that what Bluetooth was supposed to do from its inception (prior to this patent filing) and later standardization?" But these oppositionazis are mistaken: this patent is "based on a patent application originally filed in the United States in 1999," back when nobody else could have ever conceived of using the car stereo and speakers for hands-free phone calls. The only reason we find this idea obvious today is because we have been exposed to the 1999 patent application, which fully revealed the brilliant invention to us... well, not entirely since the 1999 application was more vague and general, and this patent was actually just based on it and modified from 2000-2002. Wow. Hands-free through the car speakers. What will they think of next?