Apple Representative Appears at Senate Hearing on Distracted Driving - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple Representative Appears at Senate Hearing on Distracted Driving

by

Apple's director of Federal Government Affairs appeared at a daylong summit for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to discuss distracted driving. A number of other executives appeared at the session as well, including representatives from Google, Samsung, AT&T, Sprint, Toyota, General Motors, and more.

Commerce, Science & Transportation
The summit, a multi-part roundtable discussion called "Over-Connected and Behind the Wheel: A Summit on Technological Solutions to Distracted Driving", will look at what manufacturers, OS makers, carriers, and car companies can do to decrease distracted driving.

On Thursday, February 6, 2014, at 10:00 a.m., U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV will host a daylong summit titled, "Over-Connected and Behind the Wheel: A Summit on Technological Solutions to Distracted Driving". The meeting will explore how technology can be used to minimize distracted driving, which has become a major public safety concern in recent years. With the explosive growth of cellphones and smartphones, and the increasing levels of online connectivity available to people at all times, more drivers are tempted to stay connected in their cars.

In the final discussion, Senator Jay Rockefeller IV will issue "a public challenge" to all parties to "collaborate and build more robust technological solutions to distracted driving".

The Committee has posted video of the discussion on its website.

Top Rated Comments

roadbloc Avatar
158 months ago
If you hate Apple and its products so much why are you here?

Where did I say I hated Apple products? :confused:
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Parasprite Avatar
158 months ago
Yay safer driving. Wonder what they will think of iOS in the car...

iOS in the car probably doesn't help one bit.

Tongue-in-cheek aside, it is actually fairly beneficial for Apple to know more about what safety aspects people are worried about and the efficacy of alternative methods when using the technology (normal iOS vs. Siri controls, simplified music app with bigger fonts, etc.).

If people are going to do it anyways, you might as well work to make it as safe as possible.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Gasu E. Avatar
158 months ago

If you hate Apple and its products so much why are you here?

If you feel everyone needs to agree on everything, why do you risk communicating with other people?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
158 months ago
From what I understand the M chip in the iPhone can tell if you are driving, walking or stationary. Therefore it seems like it is possible for texting and other distractions to be turned off while driving. Obviously, I am speculating, but what if you had a setting called safe driver? It would essentially leave only Siri as an interface on while driving. That way you still have access to most features while eliminating the distracting features.

The technology is there, and apple is the company that can figure out how to make this al work perfectly.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
HomePod mini and Apple TV Sage

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Remain 'Ready' to Launch

Sunday March 22, 2026 6:33 am PDT by
Apple has unveiled nine new products this month, but the wait continues for the next-generation Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini models. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said new versions of the Apple TV and HomePod mini have been "ready" since last year, but he reiterated that Apple has held off on releasing them until the more personalized version of Siri and other...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
Related Apple News: Sport | Motoring | Ipad | Business | Local News