What if the RV were a hotspot?

Posted on August 24, 2008
Filed Under Random musing |

Don't talk and drivePosted by Stan

We’ve completed most of the tasks we need to before we park the RV and head off to Europe for 15 weeks, from winterizing it (since it will be December when we return) to having the leak around the skylight fixed.

And we’ve talked a bit about if we should go with a wireless broadband connection for the 2009 leg of the trip. Makes the story in today’s New York Times, “Caution: Driver May Be Surfing the Web,” even more interesting.

Basically, “Chrysler is poised to offer in its 2009 models a new entertainment option for the children: Wi-Fi and Internet connectivity. The problem is that the entire car becomes a hotspot.”

Auto safety experts aren’t thrilled.

Two studies, one Canadian and reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, the other Australian and reported by the British Medical Association, examined cellphone records of people injured in automobile crashes. Both studies concluded that when drivers were talking on phones, they were four times as likely to get into serious crashes.

The studies show that laws mandating the use of hands-free phones are little help: the increased risk of injury is attributable to the cognitive impairment from the phone conversation, which distracts in ways that a conversation with a seatmate does not, and was just as high for those using hands-free sets as for those with hand-held ones. (Don’t look for a similar study for the United States: the carriers refuse to supply the necessary records, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in Arlington, Va.)

J. R. Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety in Washington, calls “distracted driving” one of the leading threats to “all of us who drive or walk in this country.”

Not sure this would be an issue with the RV. It’s demanding enough that surfing the web while driving would never be a temptation. Sierra, on the other hand, would love to live in a traveling hotspot.

(Note: The photo at the top, as you might suspect from the license plate, was taken in Maine.)

Comments

2 Responses to “What if the RV were a hotspot?”

  1. josh on August 26th, 2008 4:05 am

    what about one of the broadband USB adapters? Verizon, Sprint and AT&T all have them. Apparently they work pretty well.

    http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/pc-cards.jsp

  2. Stan on August 27th, 2008 7:10 pm

    Josh - I’m thinking about that, but ATT 3G coverage gets pretty spotty out west and near national parks. It’s for my own good, right?

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