Does ANYONE truly believe that all this stuff does not amount to a HUGE load of distraction from paying attention to your driving?

I'm more than a little pissed off that I had to pay for all that whiz-bang gagetry. I don't even turn on the radio when I'm driving. I don't own a cell phone and already spend WAY too much time at my desktop computer at home --- playing at being a wired geezer.

 

No, I tend to agree with you. Everyone got uptight at people taking calls while driving so the new mantra became "hands free." Now we have a tangle of wires and technology to link the phone to the car and an entire new instruction set to wade through to make it all work. It may be hands free, but it sure isn't distraction-free.

Honestly, if we would just go back to talking on a hand-held phone it would be a lot safer. I see cops continuing to talk on cellphones all the time while driving and they don't seem to be having a rash of accidents.

 

I talk on a hand-held phone... as a matter of fact, a hand-held phone is the ONLY kind of phone I care to use.



I tried putting my phone into my new Honda Fit. The desk cradle goes into the cup holder OK... and if I lean over when I talk, it works pretty good.

The problem I ran into however, was with that big reel of telephone wire I had rigged up on a trailer:



I had to connect the loose end of the wire up to the switchboard at our local Central Telephone Exchange. When I started driving the Honda, the wire spooled out pretty good, but within ten minutes the milkman's horse got all tangled in the wire---and we wound up having to shoot her.

As I had expected, this whole idea of portable telephones is just a bad idea.

 

Lol. Mind you, I do very little with Siri when driving except start and stop music and send a text by voice that says 'text hubby. I was late at work. Stuck in traffic. On my way'. 'Send it'. I do use the maps spoken directions, but plot out my route and look at map before I leave to make sure I'm not being directed to the wrong state or something. I'm not a big texter or caller... Have yet to make a call in the car.

When NOT driving, I do love messing with her, though.