I just read
this article in the New York Times that made me think that the automobile industry is on a collision course, literally, with bicyclists, and bicycling.
"Using the smartphone as a hub of digital content and services means drivers are able to preserve the same media and features they use when they are out of their cars. “You’re already used to using your phone,” Mr. Mascarenas said. “We’re trying to create a seamless experience from your home or office into your car.”
Adding technology that brings the online world into a car’s cockpit obviously increases the risk that a driver will become distracted. The National Transportation Safety Board has joined safety organizations in calling for bans on cellphone use while driving. The auto industry’s response is to use other technologies to try to reduce that risk.
Today’s cars already can do many automated safety tasks. They can maintain a set distance from the car in front of it and apply mild corrective steering to keep a car in its lane. They can also automatically adjust the headlights and determine if drivers are drowsy and then sound an alarm to awaken them.
Automakers acknowledge that the foundations are already in place for cars that, one day, may drive themselves. At that point, the issue of distraction is substantially reduced. "
Except for the little problem that bicyclists and pedestrians are so much smaller than cars they wont be recogized and seen. Instead, they WILL be banned from roads, unless we speak up NOW.
We are fighting a powerful foe, planned obsolesence.
Their old business model that had people buy new cars every year or two is failing, so they want a way to
force people to replace cars more frequently. They are looking eviously at the smartphone market, and how people throw away functional cellphones to get new ones. They want the same kind of dynamic again with cars.
Computers age faster than cars. So, they want to use more distracting gadgets to make their cars age more rapidly.
We have to make people and government MORE aware that using mobile phones and especially, computers and texting in cars is UNSAFE AND A RECIPE FOR DISASTER.
They need money to get them listening. US politicians are addicted to lobbyists cash.
We need lobbyists and our own lobbying.
Otherwise, ten years from now, bicycling as people do now may not be possible due to distracted drivers and computer collision avoidance systems that they depend on, but which ignore us.