Comments (8)

1. I am willing to bet that this would be used most often to escalate road rage.

   “Hey, #$&%^*@!, WHY did YOU just cut me OFF?”

   It reminds me of the following Sony patent that I read about last summer (Credit: New Scientist)

   “Car-to-car chit-chat

   “How often have you been driving and wished you could communicate with another driver? Perhaps you’d like to give them advance warning that you intend to slow down, say thanks when they have given way or issue a gentle rebuke for some lapse of road manners on their part.

   “Sony is patenting a simple way to make this possible. It could even let traffic lights pass messages to your car, perhaps to let you know just how long they’ll be stuck on red.

   “The system will rely on high-power LEDs built into car headlights. These can produce an apparently continuous beam that is in fact flashing very rapidly to communicate encoded messages.

   “A car’s headlight could then transmit a pre-programmed message at the press of a button to the car in front. A light sensor on the target car would then decode the message and display it on a screen or using a voice synthesizer inside the car.

   “The system could also be used to relay emergency messages via many different cars to a police vehicle or ambulance.”

   posted by n2y2 on 3-26-2007 at 4:16 pm

2. Seeing as you both have to subscribe to receive their phone number, I doubt road rage will be too much of a factor. But are we ready for this kind of blind outreach in traffic? It’s hard enough to hit someone up in conversation just waiting in line at the post office.

   posted by Johnny Cat on 3-26-2007 at 4:31 pm

3. so true…funny to note that during their beta period (through 4/30/07) all calls are free! and i wish i had that problem at my post office. the los feliz post office is one of the most outrageous places ever. everyone is fuming over the long waits and people teethe on labels & packing tape. when not lashing out at each other, they sometimes also bond. it’s no blackout, affection-wise, but i think it’s close.

   posted by Becky on 3-26-2007 at 4:58 pm

4. Let me see….a Jeffrey Dahmer’ type has a car and a cell phone and signs up. You get a ‘Hey baby’ type communication, you chit chat, you meet up, you get murdered. I may be paranoid but….no thanks!

   posted by Jane on 3-26-2007 at 5:48 pm

5. n2y2′s got a point. It’ll be just that much easier for road ragers to cuss each other out, making things worse and distracting them even more while driving.

   As if talking on the cellphone while driving wasn’t bad enough, having to go through that whole protocol just to talk to random people while driving will make things worse. someone in my home town died in a wreck a few days ago because the driver was texting while driving at night. This kind of thing will make it worse.

   posted by heather on 3-26-2007 at 11:50 pm

6. I would think the major problem is finding someone who has registered to talk to. If they had 40,000 registered users, what would be the chances that you’d ever encounter someone who was registered. Even if you check all of the hundreds of plates you see every day. There would be even less chances of finding people you’d like to speak to. I can’t imagine you’d find more than one a day on average. So you’d have almost no chance of talking to the cute girl in the Porche or finding the name of that great song the guy is playing in his Acura.

   posted by Stew on 3-27-2007 at 8:04 am

7. nah, talking to ramdom people, that’s what airports are for.

   posted by hana on 3-31-2007 at 12:02 pm

8. There’s also the possibility of the driver not being the owner of the car in question, even more common with “cute girls” and other young people, so calling them up might end up in a chat with their dad or mom.

   posted by Kay on 9-5-2007 at 8:26 am

Comment