Tech to stop drivers from texting

LONDON: American tech giant Apple has filed a patent application for a system that aims to make texting at the wheel impossible by blocking drivers from sending messages from cellphones. 

The system creates "lock-out mechanisms" to disable cellphones from performing certain functions, such as texting, while one is driving.

The patent describes how sensors in a mobile phone could tell how quickly a person was moving and would be sensitive enough to work out whether a person was in the driving seat or in a safe operating area of a vehicle, allowing passengers to text as normal.


"A handheld computing device can provide a lock-out mechanism without requiring any modifications or additions to a vehicle," the patent said. "The device can comprise a motion analyzer, a scenery analyzer and a lock-out mechanism. The motion analyzer can detect whether the handheld computing device is in motion beyond a predetermined threshold level.

"The scenery analyser can determine whether a holder of a handheld computing device is located within a safe operating area of a vehicle. And the lock-out mechanism can disable one or more functions of the handheld computing device based on output of the motion analyzer, and enable the one or more functions based on output of the scenery analyser," it said. The patent further develops the idea and says the vehicle itself could contain technology that could effectively block the signal to a phone inside a moving car.