Cruising down the parkway, close to home, your phone vibrates. It’s an important text-message from work. You just have to answer, even though you’ve heard about distracted-driving dangers — and about the laws against it. Well, now Sprint may take that choice away from you.Sprint’s new Android app, Sprint Drive First, will automatically disable your phone when traveling more than 10 miles an hour. The app knows this thanks to the phone’s GPS. When the app blocks a text or call, it sends a message to the person trying to reach you that you’re unable to come to the phone right now.
Costing $2 monthly per phone, Sprint’s target customers are concerned mommies and daddies of road-happy teenagers. “You can’t stop a teen from turning it off, but there are obvious reasons why you’d want to be able to override it — like if you’re a passenger in a car, or bus or train,” said Walter Fowler, a Sprint spokesman. “So we feel the override does need to be there.” And yes, if you chose to override the system, account holders — mom or dad — get a message.
A bunch of concerns pop up here. If this app can disable your phone, what else could this technology do? And 10 mph is not that fast. Trains travel at greater speeds.
Read more at The New York Times.
