C&D Teams Up With Chrysler To Sell "Distraction Mitigation" App
OK, so the basic functionality of the Car & Driver/Chrysler “Txt U L8r” app is fine: receive a text message while you’re driving, and it will read it aloud and automatically reply that you are driving and cannot respond immediately. But the industry’s fundamental ambivalence towards distracted driving quickly rears its head in the form of a “paid upgrade” that allows voice-activated replies by the driver: distracted driving is not a problem to be solved, but a money-making opportunity to be exploited. As a result, the message that C&D and Chrysler send with this new app is “Texting while driving is bad, bad, bad… unless you shell out for our perfectly safe app.” Which, not to put too fine a point on it, is bullshit.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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If I develop an iPhone app that presents a "I can't eat that right now" display screen, I could solve obesity! Are we a nation of toddlers? What level of impulse control does does it take to ignore a frivolous toy while performing a potentially fatal task? Don't eat the marshmallow! My idea is a notification tone stating "It's not that important. Don't worry about it, stupid. You're a nobody, and this text is a total waste of time like all the others."
I guess Chrysler doesn't have any iphones. The dragon dictation app shoots off emails pretty easily and I'm sure there must be a voice to text app out there for free as well. C&D better not have high revenue dreams from this.
What the app should really do is simply auto-reply that you are driving anytime you receive a text message
Ed, the free version has an easy-to-find setting that does exactly that...