Hyundai Patents New Feature That Will Disable Your Smartphone When It Stays Around The Steering Wheel

Ten years ago, a regular cell phone was able to send texts, make phone calls and a few simple games. Today, a smartphone allows you to send texts via multiple platforms, make phone calls via multiple apps, go online, check out social networks, play interactive games, and more.

Text messaging or using a mobile phone while driving now accounts for most car crashes that used to be attributed solely to driving under the influence. At any given moment during the daylight hours, over 800,000 vehicles in the US are being driven by someone using a cellphone, according to research. It says both hand-held and hands-free mobile phones impair driving, with no significant difference in this degree of impairment.

We’ve already known using a mobile phone while driving can be distracting. And yet, I’ve seen people doing that every single that. Fortunately, instead of relying on people’s awareness, Hyundai has come up with a technology that offers a very simple fix: disable the phones.

In a recently published patent, the company explained explicitly that the tech specifically “limits or disables the use of some of mobile device features which could cause distraction to the user”. Based on variables, including the car’s speed and where you place your phone in the car, the system will determine what smartphone functions are safe to use. For example: when your phone is moved close to the steering wheel, the system will immediately disable texting and voice calls functions. Moreover, the car can possibly detect the time of day or the importance of the caller to let messages though. In order to achieve this result, the phone would probably need to run a specific program or firmware.

It will take years to make this patent a reality. Until then, please don’t forget to put your phone away whenever you are behind the wheel.

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