Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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The more things change NTSB's call for nationwide cell phone ban smacks of overreaction that nearly everyone on the planet has a smartphone with a camera, where, he wondered, were all the UFO photos we used to see all the time? You don't I see them nearly as often as you did when having a camera with you was a com- paratively rare occurrence. It seems that smartphones are on everyone's minds these days – most likely because they clearly are a transformative piece of technology. Years from now, when we look back on our Great March Forward, smartphones probably will represent a true demarcation point. Television is a good past example of what I'm talking about: There was a time before television – and a time after television. Anyone who lived through that transition knows exactly what I'm talking about. When new technology changes the way we live, there's some inevitable hand- 80 years ago, safety advocates targeted car radios. wringing that comes along with that process. To be blunt, people also tend to freak out a bit. Take the National Transportation Safety Board's recent call for a complete nationwide ban on all cellular communication devices while driving – even hands-free devices. If you don't think that sounds like an over- reaction, would you believe we've been here before? Believe it or not, there was a similar outcry back in the 1930s when car radios started to become common- place. Upstart Chevy, which was giving Ford serious competitive headaches by the end of the 19-teens, gets credit for the first car radio, according to author Bill DeMain in a recent article on MentalFloss.com. The first units were bulky, required a battery that barely fit under the front seat and cost $200 in a time 24 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2012 n a recent interview, actor George Clooney made a clever observation: Now ➡ FAMILIAR OUTCRY. New technology inevitably leads to handwringing and second- ➡ TODAY'S REALITY. Real-time communica- tion is vital to successful and profitable fleet ➡ PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE. Technology can deliver safe, effective hands-free communica- tion if we let it. when a fully-equipped 40-foot fishing yacht cost $7,000. By the mid-'30s, several companies – most notably Motorola – had advanced car radio design to the point that they were more compact and far more affordable. As a con- sequence, they began to appear in more new cars – and there was a backlash. Opponents of car radios argued the new devices distracted drivers and caused ac- cidents and that tuning the radio required drivers to take their eyes off the road. Another argument was that the music would operations. guessing.