Apple Watch And iPhone To Have New Safety Measure While Driving

Whether you realize it or not, being distracted while driving can lead to deadly accidents. The most potential driver distractors are our smartphones and wearables (such as Apple Watch and iPhone). I believe everybody knows the danger of smartphone activities while driving a vehicle. But, usually, we ignore it until something bad happens. Many times I saw many people picking up the phone call while driving.

Even though you don’t pick up the phone, the sound can distract you. You can turn off the devices or switch it to silent mode or use Do Not Disturb feature when driving, etc. But, Apple has a better idea.

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Apple Learns From Its Previous Lesson

Back in December 2014, Apple was sued by Modissete family. The Modissetes were in a car with their daughters, Isabela and Moriah. Then a vehicle crashed their car very hard which eventually led 5 y.o Moriah to her death. Police officers said the driver who hit the family’s car was on FaceTime. The app was still on when the police arrived.

According to Patently Apple, the Modisette family said Apple’s failure to either program a shutoff into the FaceTime program or give strong warning about using the app while driving is particularly egregious given the app fully engages visual components rather than audio ones as with regular cellphone usage.

Apple Watch And iPhone To Have New Driving Safety Measure

The US Patent & Trademark Office has just published Apple’s new invention for Apple Watch and iPhone. The invention allows Apple Watch and iPhone to automatically turn off messaging apps while you are driving.

Apple Watch will be able to detect when you are driving a car, motorbike, bicycle, etc by using motion sensor. Then, it will reduce certain notifications that come from paired iPhone.

In some embodiments, the amount and type of notifications prevented from reaching the user may be configured by the user, while in other embodiments it may be controlled by the manufacturer and inaccessible to the user (e.g., to comply with regulatory requirements on driver distraction.) In some embodiments, the wearable device may instead re-route notifications from the device display or speakers to interface elements within the vehicle, such as an in-dash or heads up display or vehicle speakers, rather than preventing notifications from reaching the user.

Source: Patently Apple