I am 100% behind this. I've previously proposed to HN that texting and driving should be classified as a potential felony because of the extremely fatal consequences of being that distracted.

Obviously, I was downvoted by the crowd that believe they are special snowflakes who can text and drive with some arbitrary degree of increased safety relative to all of their peers, and likely also the crowd that believes harsh penalties should never apply because of the historic abuses of these policies in terms of keeping our prisons full. In this case, I don't give a flying shit. If you text and drive and you think it's ok, you shouldn't be on the road. Period. If you can't come to terms with this, maybe you should have your license revoked. If this is still insufficient, perhaps we really do need to put your ass in jail for a while.

Are people so psychologically addicted to their electronics that they'd be willing to skirt jail time? Is anyone actually going to have a bad day because you couldn't send a WhatsApp message while you are hurtling down the freeway at 70mph with barely 5 meters margin between you and every other car?

Just put the damn phones away while you are driving. Like OP mentions, it's not even a physical addiction or a subsequent consequence. Takes 2 seconds to become compliant no matter your current circumstances or state of mind. Some emergency in your head and you absolutely need to use the device? There's this thing called "pulling over and parking" that I would highly recommend trying out. Believe it or not, you are actually allowed to arbitrarily exit and enter the freeway along its route as desired.

Consider that you were far more likely downvoted because you show no awareness that increasingly onerous penalties are ineffective deterrents when people don’t expect to get caught. If pickpockets can work the crowds at a pickpocket hanging, people will keep using their phones. Passing “tough on texting” legislation makes people feel like heroes but it is no panacea for the problem. And much of the danger in utilizing phones exists even when it is completely hands-free, which is unlikely to be banned even in the most restrictive case.

>Are people so psychologically addicted to their electronics that they'd be willing to skirt jail time?

No, it's sort of the opposite. If driving were more difficult, or at least more engaging, people wouldn't feel boredom and the need to multitask.

Since auto pilot type safety features are especially bad at pedestrian detection, expect this to only get worse as "safety features" improve and result in less engaged driving.

> Is anyone actually going to have a bad day because you couldn't send a WhatsApp message while you are hurtling down the freeway at 70mph with barely 5 meters margin between you and every other car?

Maybe the driver's phone should disable itself when driving?