Call blocking system to make driving safer

Cellphone-muzzling technology has caught the eye of large auto insurers in the US

But after missing one too many exits because she was distracted by a phone call, Dede decided it was time to get tough with herself. So she signed up for ZoomSafer, a free service that uses her phone’s GPS sensors to determine whether she’s at driving speeds, and then disables her cellphone until she stops the car.

“I really love my cellphone,” said Dede, the chief executive of a software company in Washington. “But I know I’m not driving safely if I’m using it while behind the wheel.”
Of course, there is a simpler, no-cost solution to limiting phone use while driving: the off button. But going cold turkey is hard for many Americans who have become addicted to their gadgets. And so technology companies are trying to solve a problem caused by technology with more technology.

But the solutions reflect markedly different answers to a simple question: How much can drivers be trusted?

One group of companies assume that some people know they can’t help themselves, and therefore want a service to automatically disable their cellphone when it is in a moving car.

But other companies say the habit can be made safer with hands-free technology. Ford and Microsoft, for example, are selling systems that rely on voice commands to dial phones.

Hands-free devices are far more popular. But it is cellphone-muzzling technology that has caught the eye of large auto insurers. That’s because some studies show that talking on phones while driving is dangerous, even if the driver is using a headset and has both hands on the wheel. One insurer has even said it will offer discounts to customers who use a call-blocking service.

Call diversion

A number of fledgling companies like ZoomSafer, Aegis Mobility and obdEdge employ systems that place restrictions on phones based on the phone’s GPS signal, data from the car itself or from nearby cellphone towers. Any incoming calls are then routed to voice mail or a message explaining that the phone’s owner is driving. Exceptions can be made for certain numbers.

Passengers in cars can override such systems, but in many cases doing so automatically sends an e-mail message to the account administrator — say, a parent or employer — alerting them that the cellphone is in use.

Employers that want to make sure their drivers abide by bans on cellphone use are obvious potential customers. Community Coffee, a Baton Rouge, coffee roaster and distributor, has had such a ban on its 400 trucks for three years, which the company says has helped reduce its accident rate by 30 per cent.

It started testing a call-blocking system from obdEdge, called Cellcontrol, in August. ObdEdge charges companies $85, plus about $5 monthly, for each vehicle equipped with Cellcontrol.

“We realised we had to go beyond education and policy,” said Jamey LeBlanc, the risk manager for Community Coffee. “You’re going against human nature here, so you need something that works independently of that.”

In effect, addiction to gadgets is creating a new gadget industry. “If we could control ourselves, we wouldn’t need any of this technology,” said Donald Powers, a managing partner at obdEdge. “We know it’s such a bad habit, but we crave being connected.”

Other companies insist the habit is not so bad and can be mitigated by employing voice recognition and speech-to-text technologies in cars.

Such systems are typically developed and promoted by some of the biggest names in electronics and automobiles, as well as well-financed trade groups like the Consumer Electronics Association and CTIA, the wireless-industry group.

Ford and Microsoft, for example, joined forces to develop the Sync system, which uses voice commands to pick out a name from a phone’s address book to place a call, It can also retrieve incoming text messages and read them aloud.

In 2008, 9,18,000 hands-free systems were installed in cars, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. By the end of 2009, the industry group estimates, that figure will climb to 1.6 million systems. In many cases, hands-free kits are packaged with other options that together cost around $1,000. “We are trying to take what people are doing and make it safer,” said Doug VanDagens, the director of Ford’s Sync project. “Voice provides the safest options and keeps the driver’s eyes on the road.”

Safe driving

Manufacturers of such systems argue that their products make driving safer. As proof, they point to a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study published this summer that concluded that hands-free conversations were only a minor distraction to drivers. But not everyone agrees that this technology is the safest option.

Studies from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, for example, show that drivers are four times more likely to have an accident if they are talking on the phone — hands-free or not — while driving.

The reason, researchers say, is that drivers often become engrossed in their conversation, rather than focusing on driving, even if their hands are on the wheel. “Once a conversation begins, we don’t see a difference between hand-held and hands-free,” says Adrian Lund, president of the institute.

The insurance industry is starting to put its thumb on the scales of which approach — blocking calls or hands-free talking — is safer.

The Nationwide insurance company said last month that its customers who sign up for the call-blocking service from Aegis Mobility would be eligible for a discount of around five per cent off their annual premium. (Aegis has agreed to provide Nationwide a list of policyholders who are using the service.)

“Clearly, in addition to saving lives, it will lower auto-insurance costs,” said Nationwide’s safety officer, Bill Windsor. State Farm Insurance, the nation’s largest auto insurer, is also studying call-blocking systems.

By contrast, no insurer offers such discounts on hands-free systems.“We’re not convinced,” Windsor said, “that hands-free is safer.”