Important Ruling on In Cab Laptops pending

[Dreamer]

This ruling could make a huge difference on the day to day lives of drivers who use laptops in their truck.

Basically, the long and short of it is, Arizona DOT thinks in-cab laptops should be subject to the TV rules (ie.. can't be in sight of driver)... FMCSA will be making a ruling.

You know thousands of drivers use them responsibly, but there's that one guy who drives down the road watching a movie....


http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2008/Jun08/060908/060908-02.htm

 

[TeamCaffee]

I was listening to this arguement on the radio and this ruling could sure affect a lot of people using their computer for a GPS system.

We have seen people and know of people who watch movies going down the road really a bad practice, listen to a book while driving!

 

[terryandrene]

The issue is "Any motor vehicle equipped with a television viewer, screen or other means of visually receiving a television broadcast". Not all laptops have the capability of receiving a TV broadcast, either as built or due to the absence of an accessory. Let's hope that a DOT officer wouldn't paint all laptops with the same broad brush. This could eventually be interpreted to include any GPS receiver displaying routes and positions. Qualcomm Mobile Communications Terminals each display a warning not to use the device when vehicle is in motion. Who among us Qualcomm users has religiously adhered to this warning? Could a Qualcomm receiver be next to be scrutinized? EOBRs?

 

[cheri1122]

I think it's dangerous for the driver, not to mention the laptop, to use it while driving, so I hope the rule prohibiting it is passed.
I wonder, though, why some of the larger carriers don't use their buying in volume power to help the drivers acquire a GPS unit - seems they could buy them at a low enough price to resell at a modest profit, and everyone would come out ahead.

 

[LDB]

Cheri,

You need to rethink this. It is no more dangerous using the 17" screen of my laptop as my navigation device than using a 4" (insert brand name here) GPS unit. In fact, it's probably safer since it's so much larger it takes less of a glance to obtain the information. It would be insane for this to pass as an absolute ban. The TV part yes, the navigation part no.

 

[cheri1122]

Leo, I have to disagree. The difference in shifting your focus from the laptop screen, (which I hope isn't on the dash), to the windshield, vs the dashmounted GPS screen to the windshield, may be measured in fractions of a second, but it's enough to cause a rear end collision, IMO.
Additionally, the GPS can provide verbal directions, thus eliminating the need to look at it - can the laptop programs do that?

 

[ATeam]

Yes, laptop navigation programs can provide verbal directions.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Some states...Minnesota for one....dashboard mounting is illegal...got a warning about radar detector in personal car...while detector isn't illegal having anything on the dashboard is....He made me remove it.

 

[LDB]

Cheri,

At the distance I follow there's no chance the extra 1/2 second is going to make a difference not to mention the fact that with the far larger screen it may take 1/2 second less to get the info needed making it equal time or maybe faster than the little bitty gps. As Phil already said, yes, the laptop talks you through all the turns.

 

[cheri1122]

Only problem with maintaining a safe following distance is that if there's space for someone to get in, someone always does.
Before I got a Garmin, I used Streets & Trips on my laptop, (it didn't verbalize directions, so I didn't know that some do), and I will never go back. I'm telling you, Leo, it's a major difference, the shift in focus from screen to windshield. Even if it weren't, I never felt it was safe to leave the laptop out, while driving - an emergency stop could send it crashing, if not very securely mounted, and what do you do with it when you exit the truck? (The Garmin is easy to hide, in a few seconds)
OVM: mine is dashmounted, but with Velcro - easy to move, in a hurry.
I can see the goobers considering a laptop to be a 'broadcast capable screen', but surely even they don't think I could be watching tv on the Garmin?!

 

[piper1]

Ontario is considering a ban on using ANYTHING electronic that requires your input while driving. They are talking about cellphones, BlackBerry's, GPS Nav units, texting on a cell phone, and computers etc...

How long before we see widespread availability of a GPS Nav that you talk to it as well as it talking to you?

"Garmin, please find good paying return load from Laredo to Michigan"

"I'm sorry Moot, after what you asked for last night you are on your own"

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Ontario is considering a ban on using ANYTHING electronic that requires your input while driving. They are talking about cellphones, BlackBerry's, GPS Nav units, texting on a cell phone, and computers etc...

How long before we see widespread availability of a GPS Nav that you talk to it as well as it talking to you?

"Garmin, please find good paying return load from Laredo to Michigan"

"I'm sorry Moot, after what you asked for last night you are on your own"

Onstar voice recognition program...advance the program to truck standards...

 

[LDB]

I manage just fine and will stick with my computer system. We'll just have to disagree.

 

[Turtle]

"In fact, it's probably safer since it's so much larger it takes less of a glance to obtain the information."

Just the opposite, actually. The larger screen of the laptop actually makes it more difficult, and therefor more time consuming, to zero in with the eyes to obtain the information you want. Your eyes have to find the screen itself, then zero in on the few square inches of the screen in which your information is contained. You look at the map, then zero in on where on the map you are, then you have to look in another area for other information like distance and time to next turn, what the next turn is, etc.

All of that information is available, at a glance, in the same little 4" square, with a standalone GPS unit.

The military has found that the more information you need to display on a screen, the smaller the screen the better. They also found that teams with smaller, individual CRT's perform much better, and react far quicker, than when using a single, large display. Video gamers, especially the games that require quick reactions, score far higher on smaller screens than on larger screens.

It's all a matter of how far you are positioned away from the screen, and how the eyes and stereo vision work. At arm's length you can see pretty much everything in detail in an area just about the size of your fist (not coincidentally, about 4 square inches). If you hold out your arm and point your fist at your laptop monitor, knuckles pointed at the monitor, if your fist doesn't completely cover the screen, it's too close for you to readily see and comprehend all of the information on the screen in a single glance. Any part of the screen that you can see on either side of your fist is a part of the screen that you must re-focus on in order to see it.

I guarantee you, the myth of the big screen is a Green Eggs and Ham thing. Fact is, [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]it is much easier to perform most tasks when you can take in more information at a single glance.
[/SIZE][/FONT]

 

[greg334]

The real issue will be what will this do to the companies who sell and use video monitors/cameras as part of after market safety equipment. I would think that the ruling if gone in a negative way would put a stop to putting them on trucks.

 

[CharlesD]

I am using Streets and Trips on my laptop, but it's also a matter of personal responsibility. Those who have been on the road for a few years can remember the dark ages before GPS. Did you keep your atlas open all the time and constantly look at it going down the road? Of course not. You studied your atlas to figure out your route ahead of time. You probably tried to memorize the next few roads you were going to need. If you needed to consult it again, you may have pulled over, or just checked it at your next fuel stop. Just four months ago I was operating that way. I didn't have the laptop and I didn't have GPS. Guess what? I still found my way to where I was going and I still delivered my loads on time. I have quite a collection of local city atlas books as well as the big Rand McNally and often I find myself still using some of those books when I'm in those cities. I figure out my route in the atlas and study it well enough to get the next few turns. Why can't people use a GPS the same way? Why do people have to just wait for the thing to give them the next turn? If anything, I think turn by turn directions have made people lazy. I use Streets and Trips for local routing, but I always run the route and then study the directions the same way I do if using a map. Get the route down ahead of time so I don't have to be constantly looking at the computer (or map book) or waiting for it to tell me my next turn. So should we ban something because there are people out there who don't use it right? I don't think so. Some of us can use it responsibly. Punish the idiots but leave the responsible people alone.

 

[mcclain]

Most city, county and state police and alot of the DOT officers use laptops as well.

"Sir, I must inform you that having a laptop in your viewing area is against the law. I need to see your license where I can go back to my car and write you a ticket and a report on my LAPTOP MOUNTED ON MY DASH IN THE CAR THAT I DRIVE AT 100 MPH!"

What's next we can't talk on the CB if we are driving over 5MPH in a truck stop.

We will not be able to have those fancy girly grill covers on our trucks because it may cause a minister to drive off the road.

We will not be able to take our children with us because some ACLU nut job will claim its child abuse.

Oh the list could go on and on but now I am just getting mad!

 

[terryandrene]

Those in-truck video systems would not initially be affected because they do not receive television broadcast signals. But, as I suggested above, there certainly could be an after effect, if this ruling is eventually enforced, that might include the many other video devices we now use in the conduct of our business.

 

[Turtle]

I am using Streets and Trips on my laptop, but it's also a matter of personal responsibility. Those who have been on the road for a few years can remember the dark ages before GPS.

Yeah, I remember the paper Map Dark Ages, just like I can remember the laptop Dark Ages.

"Did you keep your atlas open all the time and constantly look at it going down the road? Of course not. You studied your atlas to figure out your route ahead of time. You probably tried to memorize the next few roads you were going to need. If you needed to consult it again, you may have pulled over, or just checked it at your next fuel stop."

Or, like most drivers, you reached over and grabbed your Motor Carrier Atlas and looked at it while you were driving down the road. I still see people doing that today.

"Just four months ago I was operating that way. I didn't have the laptop and I didn't have GPS. Guess what? I still found my way to where I was going and I still delivered my loads on time. I have quite a collection of local city atlas books as well as the big Rand McNally and often I find myself still using some of those books when I'm in those cities. I figure out my route in the atlas and study it well enough to get the next few turns. Why can't people use a GPS the same way?"

They do, actually.

"Why do people have to just wait for the thing to give them the next turn?"

It's quicker, more accurate, more efficient. Green Eggs and Ham, my man, Green Eggs and Ham. If someone gave you a standalone GSP for a week, you'd never go back to a laptop.

"If anything, I think turn by turn directions have made people lazy."

I was lazy long before they came out with electronic turn by turn directions.

"I use Streets and Trips for local routing, but I always run the route and then study the directions the same way I do if using a map. Get the route down ahead of time so I don't have to be constantly looking at the computer (or map book) or waiting for it to tell me my next turn. "

And people use their standalone GPS units the same way. Plus, at the push of a single button on-screen, you have a text listing at-a-glance of your next few turns, which is far more efficient, and safe, than trying to read a map, or a large laptop screen full of text directions while driving, or having to pull over to study it, or check it out at the next fuel stop.

"So should we ban something because there are people out there who don't use it right? I don't think so. Some of us can use it responsibly. Punish the idiots but leave the responsible people alone."

It's not about responsibility, it's about protecting us from ourselves. Then again, it's not even about that, it's about money and control. If it was about protecting us from ourselves and about safety, we'd all be required to wear a helmet in addition to a seat belt, as helmets have been shown to reduce injury far more than seat belts do.

In California and Minnesota, the only two states with such laws, it is illegal to have something suctioned on the windshield (satellite radio, GPS, etc.) that is between the driver and the windshield, except, of course, for law enforcement personnel.

 

[ATeam]

The final four paragraphs in the Land Line story suggest that regulators are not rushing into this.

Arizona STOPPED issuing citations and warnings about laptops in the cab and seeks clarification on the rule. CVSA Executive Director Stephen Campbell said FMCSA leaders were taking their time making a decision on the issue. And, "There is no intent on the part of the law enforcement community to shut down every truck in the country that has a laptop in the front of the cab,” Campbell also said, “ ... no one wants a driver heading down the highway watching a movie.”

It is a safe bet that almost every official seated in the regulatory meeting will have an iPhone or Blackberry in his or her pocket, and knows TV content can be received on those too, via the web. Many of them probably have GPS screens in their cars and know how those screens are being coupled with Bluetooth technology to be used for other purposes like web page viewing and music playing. They also know how consumer electronics technology has changed since the rule in question was passed and how fast the pace of change continues.

As I read the article, I see regulators not rushing in to enforce a laptop rule but to pause to reconsider an old rule made impractical by new changes; changes that will likely continue at a breakneck pace.