US government wants to oversee all car navigation apps

In a move to make driving safer, the Department of Transportation is asking for congressional authority to monitor phone- and tablet-based navigation apps. 

|
Google
Waze, a popular social-media navigation app, was purchased by Google last year.

"Don't text while driving."

That's a common-sense adage by this point. But, "Don't use smart phone navigation apps while driving"? Not so much. And yet, that's the goal of the Department of Transportation as it seeks legal authority to regulate phone- and tablet-based navigation apps. 

The provision is included in the Obama Administration's recent transportation bill titled The Grow America Act, which would allow the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to oversee and review all in-car navigation devices. It would give the agency authority to order apps to be altered if they do not meet the government's safety guidelines. 

Most automakers that produce cars with navigation systems already adhere to these guidelines. This marks the first time, however, that such a law could affect Silicon Valley. Namely, Apple and Google, whose navigation apps are often the reason a driver may have his or her head bowed at a red light, looking up directions. 

Consequently, technology companies oppose the measure, arguing the Department of Transportation doesn't have the time, resources, or manpower to provide the necessary regulation, reports The New York Times.  

“They don’t have enough software engineers,” Catherine McCullough, executive director of the Intelligent Car Coalition, an industry group, tells The Times. “They don’t have the budget or the structure to oversee both Silicon Valley and the auto industry.”

For its part, the Department of Transportation views apps such as Apple's Maps and Waze, the popular social-media navigation tool that is also owned by Google, as potentially life-threatening hazards on the road. Car crashes "remain one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.," according to DOT, noting that in 2012, car crashes killed more than 33,000 people in the US. And according to the National Safety Council, "using a cell phone while driving makes it four times as likely that you'll crash – while using handheld or hands-free devices." 

Last year, the Department of Transportation released a series of voluntary guidelines outlining precautions that drivers can take. The guidelines emphasize that drivers should only use smart phone applications, such as texting or browsing social-media content, while the car is stopped and parked. The guidelines also reflected a federal study showing that using phones and other portable devices while driving tripled the likelihood of crashing. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to US government wants to oversee all car navigation apps
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/Horizons/2014/0616/US-government-wants-to-oversee-all-car-navigation-apps
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe