C&D Teams Up With Chrysler To Sell "Distraction Mitigation" App

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

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.



What the app should really do is simply auto-reply that you are driving anytime you receive a text message or phone call when you are in the car, and deactivate all phone functionality until the car is stopped. That would be safe… but then nobody would spend money on something that could basically be accomplished with the phones power button. It’s bad enough that the OEMs are constantly trying to justify in-car distraction with voice-activated gizmos, but as a media outlet, C&D should be taking a stand here, not enabling the industrys disingenuous line. After all, distracted driving would have been the perfect tie-in for C&Ds half-hearted “Save The Manuals” campaign. As usual though, thoughtless commercialism and industry favor-currying trumps driver education and advocacy.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • ClutchCarGo ClutchCarGo on Oct 08, 2010
    "As usual though, thoughtless commercialism and industry favor-currying trumps driver education and advocacy." And this, my friends, is free-market capitalism in full swing; provide the solution that generates the most profit. Or would you prefer some govt intervention?
  • Slow kills Slow kills on Oct 08, 2010

    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."

  • Daga Daga on Oct 08, 2010

    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.

  • Justin Berkowitz Justin Berkowitz on Oct 11, 2010

    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...

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