Face it, kids. You missed the best time to be a teenager by around five or so years. As it stands now, technology is cutting into that adolescent fun, with device like Ford's
MyKey and this one here ensuring that you're actually safe behind the wheel. In all seriousness, the terribly named Key2SafeDriving is a fine concept (at least in the parent's eye), as it fuses a cellphone jammer (of sorts) into a key fob in order to put the kibosh on freeway conversations. Essentially, the signal blocking kicks into action anytime the "key" portion is flicked out, connecting to a handset via Bluetooth or RFID and forcing it into "driving mode." No actual
jamming, per se, is going on; it's more like a manual override of the ringer. Anyone who phones / texts you while you're safely driving will receive an automated response informing them of such, though we are told that handsfree devices can be utilized. Researchers at the University of Utah are hoping to see it on the market within six months via a private company "at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a yet-undetermined monthly service fee."
[Via
Gadgets-Weblog]
posted December 12th 2008 9:27AM
Congratulations for being frist! Now you're the coolest person on the internet for a day!
I'm just going to wrap my key in tin foil... and text people while driving about how to they can wrap their key in tin foil
I don't think this device makes sense. In fact, I think its dangerous not to be able to get or send texts while driving. In fact, considering the new Ford cars with Sync have a special texting device, this is stupid.
"Sync can also download your phone book from most newer cellphones and allow voice through speaker calls (mic is in the rearview mirror). Sync can even monitor your phone and notify you on screen when you have a new Text message (available on certain Bluetooth phones). The car can read plain English text messages to you but the technology isn’t available yet for you to dictate replys back to the sender. What Ford has done, brilliantly, was set up a group of likely replies that you can simply press to send as a reply: “Yes”, “no”, “see you later”, etc are among them. "
The way I see it, the only place I actually want to be able to block calls is in the movie theater. I never take a call during a movie OUT OF RESPECT FOR OTHER VIEWERS. But, because my favorite theater has numbnuts who don't care about others, I bought a cell jammer off ebay and as soon as they get loud...
*bbbbbbbbbbbbbxxxxxxxxxxxxxt*
hello?
hello?
what happened?"
@Flashpoint - You forgot to mention in your boasting of Sync and giving Ford credit, that Sync was made by Microsoft...
Sentax
So you're telling me that if I mention a product in a vehicle, I have to mention exactly who made it?
I thought Microsoft fanboys don't online till 10:30????
you guys arnt replying to what im saying.,.. u just want to make your point near the top. this is.. shameful
@Flashpoint - Ok, ok, you don't have to mention who made it, but you implied that it was made by Ford, just doing a correction. Plus, the way autos are going MS may just buy Ford anyways.. LOL j/k..
Fanboy here, Fanboy there, apparently you can't like products from anywhere..
How to defeat: turn off Bluetooth on the phone.
A waste of money that better education could prevent.
It's not even that hard to defeat. No mobile phone manufacturer is going to incorporate this crap technology into their phones unless they've got some reason to do it, and Ford isn't a very good reason. Even if one or two did, not ALL of them would, and any kid could figure out which phones support it and which don't, and just buy one that doesn't.
Yea, and not all phones have bluetooh, and I'm sure there are tons of hardware that won't have support for it. The other thing is, u can probably disassemble to key and put a sticker or something to either keep the switch pressed or contact points off.
so... if you get into an accident on the highway, what do you do? Leave your car before you can use your phone?
Good idea, dumb concept
Perhaps it should only work while the car is turned on, since you're most likely not moving when it's off. So in times of an accident you could use your phone. Heck just build the thing into the car, so it can be attached to the accident sensors and engine to know when the car is on or off, or in an accident. Throw in that it calls 911 right away once you're in a pretty bad accident too. That would be kinda cool, though I think On-Star might not like it....
hear hear
P.S.
Monthly service fee?!?!
For something that doesn't use their service past making the initial product??!?
I'm glad tacobell doesnt have a monthly service fee for the tacos I eat
can we have an engadget tacobell group buy?
It's the only business model that works in the long-term. If AT&T hadn't been broken up, a large monopoly with no real competition has no incentive to innovate. Just keep the people using your product and watch the monthly fees coming in.
Yeah, that was my first response too...why do you need a monthly service charge?
And btw, Taco Bell does have a monthly service charge, it's called gaining weight ;)
What a stupid piece of crap. Just take the battery out if you are unfortunate enough to get overprotective moron parents who can't simply say "crash the car, and you don't get to drive it anymore"
Will the key refuse to start the car unless it is paired with the phone? If so I am getting one for myself! No more forgetting the phone at home in the morning! Can it pair with my wallet too?
oh man, if ONLY I could pair my car keys with my wallet!
I need a device to pair my balls with Angelina Jolie's fat lips.
"yet-undetermined monthly service fee."
lovely! soon they'll be charging you a monthly usage fee for groceries!
I want a cell/text jammer for the next time I'm at the movies. I pay $9 a ticket (two for me and my wife) plus about the same amount for popcorn and soda and gotta hear the hackass behind me on the phone and the hackass in front of me texting...
$50 for movie night and its ruined by hackasses...
This has failure written all over it. Unbelievable.
monthly "service" fee? whats the service?
Crap idea.
1. 50 USD buys you a hands-free kit.
2. Requires offspring to have compatible handset.
3. Easily worked around, 'tinfoil' (Faraday cage), spare mobile, software work around etc
4. Why not build into car? My Samsung had an auto text response if you pushed the volume button when it rang. Building it into car would also allow for more safety features - e.g: "Contact Emergency Services upon Airbag Activation" or whatnot.
5. Monthly usage fee?
I just don't get it. It seems so poor I'm tempted to think Engadget might have missed some crucial detail.
Farady cages only work on static (as in unchanging) electric fields. I'm not an expert on bluetooth technology but the Farady concept probably isn't going to work (just like it doesn't work for standard cell phone calls).
faraday cages work on all electromagnetic fields so long as the holes are matched up to the wavelength of the signal. lrn2faraday
wiki:
A Faraday cage or Faraday shield is an enclosure formed by conducting material, or by a mesh of such material. Such an enclosure blocks out external STATIC electrical fields.
@ironman
Read further:
"To a large degree, Faraday cages also shield the interior from external electromagnetic radiation if the conductor is thick enough and any holes are significantly smaller than the radiation's wavelength"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
@Balls - I down ranked you because you use the reply feature of top posts to force your unrelated reply to the top.
Hopefully it doesn't prevent them from making emergency calls.
@Big GIANT Balls: "crash the car, and you don't get to drive it anymore"..?...you are assuming they will survive the crash so they can be punished.
I was just thinking the same thing about emergency calls. so they get in an accident and they only have use of their left arm, their cell phone is in it (dont ask how, this is hypothetical) but they cant take the key out of the ignition and close it in order to make a call to 911?
-_-
no thanks.
That touch diamond is offended to be seen next to that ugly ass key FOB.
But I replied to my own post, which makes it ok. Its like I own the top spot now.
An actual jammer in a key that somehow gets power through the key hole would be a good investment for rental car companies or those with fleets. Then again its possible to wire an actual jammer to the accessory/ignition switch.
Now, if we can only get this in the keys of Military HUMVEES so terrorists can't use cell phones to activate IEDs!
Military HUMVEES dont have keys, they just have switches.
I'm sure the terrorists would be more than happy to use only compatible phones for their IEDs so we could jam them.
Back in the real world, however, the military already uses real jammers for this purpose.
I think I motion sensitive jammer would be a better, slightly illegal, solution. Mount it in the trunk and when ever the car is moving it jams. That way it keeps everybody in the vicinity off their phones while driving.
Way to go Ford - find new ways to turn away your deminishing customer base.
This has nothing to do with Ford.....
To all of you "smart" people who think this device is stupid, tell that to the parents who lost their kids in an accident because they were talking on the phone while driving or because the other driver did.
Unfortunately, the real stupidity is coming from people who talk on the cell phone while driving!!!
or you could just the phone off how stupid can people be
What exactaly are you trying to say? Your lack of complete sentance structure baffles me or it could just be that i'm distracted by all this driving while surfing engadget....
yea i couldnt edit damn engadget. i tired to post again to correct, but wont go through, no not my lack of competence, take a look at yourself, oh wait your driving nevermind... ;)
@ Boarderwoot...
Surfing while driving?... Isn't that like 1000x worse than talking while driving?
A friend of mine got into an accident 5 or 6 years back, where the other driver that plowed into him b/c he was using one of those olddd palm PDA's to tap out his new house number.... and now people like you are viewing fullly rendered Websites in colour mind you (not that grayscale crap) while driving and thereby increasing my chances of getting hit in the arse.... Jerk:@
@malice,
dont worry, i only get REALLY distracted when i surf your mom's myspace page
Isn't this mobile blocking device kinda redundant with WinMo?
lol.. you'd probably have more drivers going off the road trying to figure out why their call was dropped.
What's stopping the kids from making copies of the key?