Nissan Is Testing An In-Car Phone Signal Blocker
If your car’s cabin had a special box that would block incoming mobile phone signals, to make sure you were never tempted to use your phone illegally, would you use it?
Nissan has borrowed a 180-year-old idea to provide just that. After engineering a miniaturised Faraday cage into the central storage bin between the front seats, Nissan has dubbed it the much more marketing-savvy Signal Shield concept.
The concept is switchable, so you can either leave the bin lid open and still use Bluetooth to make and receive calls while driving, or you can shut the lid and choose to block everything to let you concentrate on what really matters. Like not driving into anything. An actual switch could be an option as well in future versions, letting drivers keep their armrest closed with the Signal Shield deactivated.
As more and more young drivers get behind the wheel, the proportion of people willing to use their phone illegally is rising fast. From eight per cent of people in 2014, that figure now stands at 31 per cent, says RAC research quoted by Nissan. Nissan itself found that 18 per cent of people admit to texting behind the wheel, and there’s a good chance that not everyone who’s guilty actually declared it.
The Faraday cage idea, the development of which harks back to the 1830s, blocks all wireless electronic signals from getting to the phone handset, so to get around the music playback problem any car that had one installed would also have connectivity ports in the same location.
In a press release, Nissan said:
“The number of drivers admitting to handling their phone in the car has increased from 8 per cent in 2014 to 31 per cent in 2016, according to the RAC.
“Users are becoming habitually more tempted to check text messages and notifications as they appear on their phone’s screen, even if they are driving. Nissan’s own research found almost one in five drivers (18 per cent) admitted to having texted behind the wheel.
“All Nissan crossovers are available with Bluetooth connectivity to allow drivers to make and receive hands-free phone calls when it is safe to do so. NissanConnect, or Apple CarPlay on the all-new Nissan Micra, enable further integration with a phone’s apps.
“The Nissan Signal Shield concept provides optional connectivity, giving drivers the choice between being able to contact and be contacted from the road, or creating a ‘phone-free’ space and time. It means a digital detox and a drive that’s free of incoming distractions.”
Comments
The problem with this is how to introduce this blocker into the market and avoiding that the customers stop wanting to buy a car that doesn’t allow them to keep connected with the rest of the world. I think that is more important to teach the people how and when use their devices at the correct moment.
Instead of investing the money on a device that restricts the “liberty” of the customers, I would keep investing on systems that help the users to use them without putting their lifes on jeopardy.
Most people are too stupid concerning phones and cars.
You literally just described autonomous people-pod “cars” in a nutshell. When you take off the CTzen tinfoil hat and think rationally concerning the real world, autonomous transportation becomes a lot more viable on a daily basis. There are still many other issues with them, though…
I mean, it’s probably easier to invest billions on autonomous tech than to ensure that all drivers will be disciplined. People are stubborn, and cling to their habits.
But still, the one who is sensible enough to block their network in the cars would definitely not use it while driving.
Finally a company doing something good.
Just make more manuals and all of them will be forced to concentrate 😂😂
Yea, that would be the best solution. Also, most of the time you have to shift, so you fall asleep while driving.
Pffft, seen many people on their phone in a manual car…highway or other roads where you drive in the top gear it is easy to do
I am afraid that this won’t work. The stupid people will still use their phones. They use their phones everywhere.
My dad’s colleague was sitting, because it was red light, and some girl just smashed into the back of his car. Guess what? She was fricking lifestreaming on her phone.
The other day, we’re driving on the highway, passing a car, I see that the guy driving next to us is just scrolling his phone and slowly going to our side. Thankfully he reacted few seconds before a crash would’ve happened.
I have the perfect solution, show young drivers first hand what inattention can cause and make it mandatory that they see it, that way they’d be scared away from it, either that, or make cars with natural signal jammers or phones that can detect when they’re in a car and disable anything that allows you to hold, look at or touch the phone, for example, only loud speaker and voice activation is usable whilst in a car
So much for using pandora to listen to music.
Tbh this isn’t going to do much. Ppl who decide to use this were probably not gonna check the phones in the first place. Those who do like checking their phones won’t use the device
I dont think thats a good idea
What if you need to make an emergency phone call?
Take it out of the thing
Has Nissan ever heard of bored passengers or phone gps?