Apparently, headsets do not make calling while driving as safe as talking to a passenger while driving. If something happens, a passenger in the car with you will see it and instinctively shut up. Someone at the other end of the phone won't know anything is going on and will keep talking, keeping your attention distracted. Not for long, to be sure, but when you're behind the wheel of a car, half a second can easily make the difference between life and death.
But encouraging people to use safer alternatives is better then banning (or preventing) these alternatives because some people will always use a phone in the car. Remember that the average John Smith salesman who is about to use his phone to call his costumer doesn't immediately know how to turn off the airplane mode. He might be distracted for quite a while because he can't figure out why siri is not working. And if he is in a hurry, he will certainly not pull over!
Yes, as a driver I take it as my responsibility to shush people (whether talking via a handsfree arrangement or with passengers) when I need concentration or something unexpected has come up on the road.
And when he gets home, complain to the national govt communication agency, and Toyota.
I agree with that. Further, Toyota, nor anyone else, has no right to reach down into my life and disable something.
Also a good argument for not using a radio in a car, but that is mostly my own personal bias.
Siri is a network service, it can't work locally.
In fact, IIRC, it had an offline mode back in the day before Apple bought them.
OTOH, if you crash and die, you'll miss all calls. And the other passengers of the other car too.
Parent wasn't talking about answering calls while on the road. Parent was referring to missing a call. If they need to have their phone on, that's completely reasonable. Maybe they're even an emergency driver. It doesn't mean they won't pull over when there's a call.
Having the phone on doesn't mean talking on the phone while driving. In fact, I'm pretty sure siri is disabled during phone calls, so this is a feel-good farce with very dangerous implications. One that's more likely to cause crashes than prevent them. Thankfully this happened in a low density country with safe roads.
Yeah, because they're gonna pull over on the side on the road to answer it.
In a world where people are even TEXTing while driving, pulling over to answer a phone is what most people would do, right?
Maybe you only know completely insensitive and inconsiderate jerks, but most of the drivers I know abhor texting/calling while driving. Don't turn your problem into everybody's problem.