nb_mike I agree there are people texting and driving something that is very dangerous. Having this mod on my car is not going to change the fact that these people exist. I will assure you that you won't have to worry about me, and comparing this to texting is not a valid comparison, see my points below. On my post i mentioned 2 use cases : sitting in traffic (not driving) , and for passengers watching on long trips.
Driving is dangerous in general and to be a safe driver you have to manage risks. Risks when driving are distractions within the cockpit (most of which you can control) as well as external risks (that "idiot" texting in the car next to you driving into your lane, or someone running a red light, etc). I am a pilot, and I race motorcycles, two things were you are constantly managing risks. That is the most important thing you can do to be a safe driver is manage risk.
I can't speak for anyone else but in my case just because I have a car with this mod doesn't mean my eyes are glued to a screen watching a movie. The car has a great 7.1 surround sound with 11 channels of audio piped through 17 speakers. It is great to listen to and for my passengers to watch.
Do you ever do one or more of the following:
- look at your navigation map screen while driving
- check your blindspot
- look in your side mirrors
- look in your rear view mirrors
- look at your passenger when they talk to you
- Take your eyes off the road for 1 or more seconds
- Talk on your cell phone
If you answered yes to any of those you are just as dangerous as the someone who has this modification done to their car. Driving comes first, if you want to glance at a screen that your passengers are watching for 1 or 2 seconds when you are (name your scenario: stuck in traffic, driving with no one around you, have the ability to look away from the road without harm to yourself or others around you) that is a risk, the same risk you take when you move your eyes of the road to perform any of the tasks above.
I left texting out of that list because that it a completely different scenario that shouldn't even be compared to this. Texting is an active activity usually two hands on the phone and eyes off the road looking at a small screen.
All the aforementioned activities above were really just passive activities where you, the driver, are taking in information from various inputs in the car. Mirrors, passenger conversations, information around your vehicle, cars pedestrians, blind spots are all sources of information you need to process. If adding another source of passive information (keep in mind this source already exists in the form of an 8in nav screen which you can already look at for radio information, navigation information,etc), if you switch that video source from "nav" to "dvd" and all the sudden the driver loses their ability to manage risks anymore, then I would argue that person shouldn't have this mod. If the driver is unaffected by that particular scenario then they will be fine and you won't have to worry about them on the road because they are a good driver who understands how to manage risk. I hope i am making my point, sometimes its hard to understand without having had a system like this in your car before. Again if someone is truly watching a movie and that is taking priority over their driving then they shouldn't have this unit.
Drive Safe.
. Also, bringing this or any other issue to a personal level and/or thread hijacking is bad forum etiquette. It was a simple question which should have yielded good tech discussion with another thread open for safety discussion.
