Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
For those of you unaware, talking/texting/Facebooking on a phone while driving is more dangerous than not doing those things while driving. How do I know that? Well, I do live in the real world, where I see people doing those things — and more — while driving, and while I don’t follow those same people much when they are not doing those things, I can only imagine they are not that bad at driving all the time.
Also, a government agency said so.
This whole talking/texting/Facebooking thing while driving has been an ongoing thorn stuck in the paw of the wireless industry for almost as long as that whole “do cellphones give you brain cancer?” thing. And from looking at how well that item has progressed, I am going to guess that the talking/texting/Facebooking while driving issue will be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction about the time humans start including the planet Mercury in their addresses.
I am sure we can all agree that no one should be allowed to hold a cellphone to their head and talk or attempt to access messaging or data services while they drive, and I am sure that a great number would also agree that even hands-free devices are not really the answer. I am also sure people would agree that while playing with a cellphone while driving is bad, there are a million other things people should not be doing while driving around a 2-ton missile of destruction.
Playing with the radio. Playing with the navigation system. Trying to adjust the seat. Adjusting the climate control. Talking to a passenger. Arguing with a passenger. Looking at a passenger. Trying to explain how to adjust the radio, navigation system, seats or climate control to a passenger. These are all things that take a driver’s attention away from driving, and yet are all things that happen inside vehicles every second of every day.
Much of the concern involving distracted driving could be covered if more intense driver training were required, but of course that will never happen as the automotive industry, and I am guessing the collision repair industry would have to be in favor of getting more 16-year-olds on the road.
But, like most laws involving automobiles, I can’t imagine the ban on talking/texting/Facebooking will be easy to enforce. Published reports are already coming out about the difficulty in trying to enforce this potential ban, which it might be said is already in place in a number of states.
A survey conducted by SodaHead has already noted that a majority of people would favor the ban, though I am sure that a majority of those people would also likely break such a ban at some point.
In the end, while I applaud those trying to push a ban on talking/texting/Facebooking while driving, I think we could all agree that such a proposal would ultimately be tough to enforce and just as speeding, would be something most people would only adhere to when driving around their mother-in-law.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
–Just a little reminder for all of you out shopping for consumer electronic devices this holiday season. A report Accenture claims returned items will cost companies $16.7 billion in 2011. That’s billion with two L’s.
–Rough year for AT&T. Between being slammed by just about every customer satisfaction survey and having the federal government give it grief for trying to take out a rival, rough year all around for AT&T. But, all is not lost, at least when it comes to customer satisfaction. I received an email from a “customer service expert” Laurie Brown that says AT&T can go from worst to first in that category by changing just a few things.
A summation of those things is basically that AT&T needs to be nicer to customers and appear to care about their problems and that it needs to train its employees to be more consumer-friendly. Brown claims that if AT&T follows these tips, it could shoot to the top of customer satisfaction surveys in 12 months.
So there you go, AT&T. Just follow those simple rules that you were obviously oblivious to, and at least that part of your problems will be solved. Now, who has any bright ideas for getting this T-Mobile USA deal all cleared up?
–Have any spectrum to sell? Might want to call Verizon Wireless quick before they use up all of their birthday money.
–Finally, a reason to go to the zoo and not look at the animals. The San Diego Zoo unveiled a new downloadable application that allows those fancy-pants enough to own an Apple iPhone to check up on their favorite caged animal park. The application features “news, photos, videos, visitor information and more! Watch our live animal cams, learn more about your favorite animals and stay connected with wildlife from the San Diego Zoo on your iPhone!” In case you missed it “!”
For those that don’t own an iPhone, too bad. If you want to watch animals behind bars you actually have to put some clothes on and physically go to the zoo. Best of all, the application includes a “fan wall” where people can post their experiences with the zoo’s animals, and a real-time stream of Polar Bear Cam and high-definition Panda Cam.
You knew this was coming … :
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