Recent legislative changes in California's driving laws got me thinking about how these new regulations will impact devices and applications coming into cars.
The recent changes include: California's ban on texting in the car (which will be effective January 1, 2009) as well as requirement of hands-free cellphone usage while driving. In direct violation of this law, California Highway Police estimates that 30% of drivers still don't use Bluetooth headsets - the fine is 'only' $20 for the first offence and $50 for future offences. Check out this video on busted hands-free drivers and this funny article on excuses that people are making to escape the cop - the lesson: you never can predict the creative ways people use to avoid getting caught.
And these changes are not limited to California or even the US. I found an up-to-date list of regulatory bans on cellphone/GPS usage while driving at the following site: http://www.cellular-news.com/car_bans/. Certain countries/states (e.g. New Delhi, Belgium etc.) completely ban the use of mobile phones at all while driving while others have no rules at all (Vermont, Michigan, Illinois). Nevertheless, the general regulatory movement is toward increasing regulation.
Automotive manufacturers are probably the most conservative in the area with some OEMs not allowing their navigation units to be interacted with when a car is moving above 5 miles per hour. Most PND device makers have a disclaimer that appears every time the device is turned on stating that users should not use the device while driving - quite an interesting statement given that the product is only useful when driving.
So who benefits from this regulatory tightening around the world? Other drivers for sure (fewer dangerous drivers). Definitely Bluetooth headset vendors. In the medium term, voice applications company, speech-to-text vendors and voice recognition system (ASR) vendors. Perhaps radio broadcasting firms and MP3 player vendors will benefit as people will tend to talk less on the phone and pay more attention to their radios/audio devices. Who gets negatively affected? Probably mobile operators (less usage in the car) , in-dash TV device vendors, GPS device makers (regulation probably will encompass this market as well) .
It's been an open question for me as to whether the mobile phone will be at the center of the digital car experience or whether the car itself will.
I think that new regulations favor our car experiences developing towards the mobile phone as it will always allow the customer more openness. For instance, the government can't force my phone to shut down when I am traveling above 5mph. Better applications and services will likely flow through the phone as a result, leading to a virtuous cycle of customer adoption.
Posted by: Clay | October 03, 2008 at 08:06 PM