Frazz by Jef Mallett for September 17, 2022

Let the consumer hook their phone to their insurance company: The fewer times the phone blasts you for driving with the phone on, the lower your insurance rate.

Says the guy wearing the T-shirt that identifies him as a crash-test dummy.

When a driver slows for a turn and looks in the rear view mirror to be sure the following driver is aware of the change, then sees only the top of that driver’s head, the turn can become a matter of survival.

Just a reminder that there’s case law saying that if you text someone who’s driving you may have some liability if they crash.

Don’t worry. We’re heading to driverless cars. The accident injury lawyers will be left with the software flaws to litigate.

Yeah, there’s a fine line between Freedom and Tyranny, and the line has to be crossed occasionally when the Freedom is abused with lack of responsibility. That’s why laws need to be enforced and accountability restored.

But, since we are a society that encourages aggression, we’d more likely get predictive road rage.

Like the Mensa I passed on the interstate yesterday who was doing 50 in the center lane with his left blinker on. When I went by, he was looking at his phone. Completely oblivious.

A valid, applicable point and I understood it on the first read. Not typical for this strip.

Install jammers in cars, so that whenever the engine is running, the phone is jammed. Problem solved.

I’ve always felt that cars should have strong, yet pliable, rubber bumpers on the front so that when you approach someone doing well below the posted Speed Limit, you could give them a little NASCAR bump-and-run to remind them to “move over, moron,” or simply to push them out of the way. Kind of risky at freeway speeds, but “GENIUS” on city and country roads, eh?

This! Sometimes I feel that drunk drivers are less of a danger than people screwing around with their phones while driving.

While I would in no way minimize the stupidity, danger, and just plain evil of texting drivers, and while there is no doubt that the glowing Pop Tart® that has enslaved so many of the weak-minded has greatly exasperated the problem, I must point out that it does predate stupidphones. I myself was once rear-ended at a stop light by a jack@ss who was reading a newspaper on his steering wheel. (And the idiot cop refused to write a ticket because he didn’t want to go to court. Said it right out.)

When I moved to CA in ‘80, I was shocked to see the drivers working crossword puzzles, putting on makeup, making breakfast, reading books, newspapers and even playing music instruments – during rush hour on the 101 at 70mph (federal mandated speed limit of 55). The police were out looking for, and pulling over folks, for doing the speed limit – for obstructing traffic – which according to them, was a bigger hazzard than speeding – need to go with the flow… The feds told CA to slow their traffic down or they would lose their highway funding – CA laughed at them and told them their funding only paid for about 5 miles of interstate construction and they didn’t care – moving large amounts of people in a timely manner was more important…

Well they already have"Idiot Lights" for low oil, water gas,tire pressure,etc….

That may be great, but not universally awesome. When I’m in the car and moving, I hand my phone to one of my kids for driving directions, quick text communication if needed, music choices we play thorough amazon music on a portable speaker… I’m just not sure how that would work for those types of situations?

The number-one argument I hear against self-driving cars is “those stupid machines will make mistakes and people will die”. Apparently the people who die because stupid people make mistakes are acceptable losses.

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The real problem most people have with self-driving cars is “who will I get to sue and get rich off of if I’m in an accident?”.

They are already testing systems that will block use of the phone from the driving seat for anything but 911 calls. Not sure the impact on GPS.

Phones can be used by passengers too, y’know!

Well, at least we no longer have new cars with bumpers designed to maximize damage.

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But, if we valued safety over ego, mass shootings would be extremely rare.