Hand Free is Not Safer then Hand Held? Wrong!

Many of us have seen the reports and heard the news about the research concluding that Hand Free cellular phone conversation is not safer then hand held cell phone conversation.

We beg to disagree and disagree strongly. This is VOODOO science. The fact is that carrying out a conversation is not a purely cognitive exercise. We are physical beings and any activity we take tend to effect any additional activity we are involved in or intend to add to the ongoing event. Our research conducted on the road by observing real world driver doing what they do without artificial scenarios and without interference

The least of the problem with hand held, is the tendency of drivers to lean onto one side or another to support their arm after few minutes of conversation. That action by itself causes the following:
1. increases the Side/Rear blind spot from the cell phone side
2. Throws the rear view mirrors out of adjustments increasing driver disconnect from the traffic
3. Changes the Forward looking perspective of the driver and creates a front blind spot
The other effect of holding the phone in one hand while attempting to steer in the other hand creates a conflict in the "motor feed back" of both arms and this results in:
1. Poor steering control
2. Poor communication with other driver (No turn signals)
3. No activation of essential equipment in a timely manner, (Horns, Lights, Wipers)
4. No steering control as drivers find it necessary to make adjustment to their environment or to respond to a physical need
Other phenomenon were observed, but we would rather keep to our selves at this moment. One we can not resist the urge to share is what we term, "Hand Held Confusion". In that phenomenon, drivers hold the phone in one hand but they use it on the ear at the opposite side of their bodies.

Cognitive distraction is real, but not for the first few minutes "After the call is already in progress". What's more, this distraction is different and unique to each individual event, caller, called, conversation content/context in addition to the DrivingSystem^TM variables of Man, Machine, Environment, History and Regulation.
What we experience in every activity we do is what we term as a CognoMotor^TM activity, and our success or failure in this activity is a relative result that depends on skills in the cognitive and motor skills involved.
We would love to describe this in further details, but the above is sufficient to explains why we disagree with the University of Utah findings and all other findings that talks about the distraction being an "Its all in your head" type of problem, and not a part of a complete experience.

This is also why many other universities research are following in our footsteps in creating and researching an integrated driving system. UMTRI with the NHTSA are working on IVBSS.

The European are also working on similar projects. Like their American counterparts, they recently began to follow in our footsteps and create an integrated driving system instead of segregating the problems into individual phenomenon, e.g., sleepiness, speeding, distraction, etc. Example programs would be the PReVENT project. Links are available on this website to many of these academic and Governmental programs.

In our footsteps is a phrase that deserves explanation. Our first in vehicle personal PC was in 1985, before the term Telematic was invented by our German colleagues. We are not talking about a pie in the sky article, nor are we discussing a usual college/Sci-Fi We have no date tonight type of conversations. We have worked on this project using at least two different brands of PCs with the full aim of avoiding "Eyes off the road" AND " Hands off the wheels" AND " Providing smart assistance to the driver", and using "Text To Speech". Other inventions are today's big buzz, e.g. Blind Spot Detection, Tire Pressure monitoring, Pay at the Pump and so on.

Luckily we still have the check sheets, NDAs and the software and hardware that we used at the time and since then in preparing and waiting for the market to respond to our forward vision, while we absorbed the additional experience from using and testing our theories on the roads and around the world daily.

Our solution, (STMCGateway), is Simple, Effective, Reliable, and Scalable. It was not developed in dark rooms playing with video games, nor was it created by a committee. It was a vision that was nurtured and discussed and confirmed over more then two decades and benefited from various exposures to various disciplines.
To know more, you can click on this Link or, call Mr. Naboulsi directly on 248/388-0211 or e-mail him on manaboulsi at actplace.net.