'Textalyzer' Device Allows Police To Determine If Drivers Text While Driving

Armadilo

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Like a breathalyzer, the textalyzer would be used by police after a car accident. But this device would instead allow officers to download information from the driver's phone and track every tap and click made in the minutes beforehand.
 
I love the idea of cutting down on texting and driving, but this seems like there'd be some major privacy concerns.
 
I'm all on board if they can guarantee some privacy issues that obviously are there.

Texting while driving is as bad as drunk driving. If not worse.
 
This is something that could be good, yet so easily to be used by just a pissed off cop.

Texting and driving should be treated on par with drunk driving. Fuck that shit. Too many people get into accidents, hit, die, because some fucking bitch had to text while driving. So I'm all for harsher laws and better ways to stop it.

But man, does this thing reek of police going to just pull people over and harass em to give em their phone so they can say you get a ticket. Not too mention, people do use their phones as GPS, Uber, etc.
 
Police sometimes have a judge on call to sign warrants to almost immediately draw blood from suspected drunk drivers, if you think you're going to be able to keep them off your phone...
 
I think they'd be able to use this without having to see WHAT was texted, just IF something were texted, like if letter keys were pressed or swiped x amount of time before the accident would be enough, or if swiping actions happened right before a collision, or maybe even if voice commands were being given, etc. Content is not required, only the action.

With that said, it is still horribly ripe for abuse, and I don't trust law enforcement nearly as much nowadays to be on the up and up.
 
Good. It's amazing and scary how frequently you see this on the road
 
What if I was at a red light and quickly answered a text with "k" and the text had nothing to do with my active driving?
 
lmao fuck this device. Love to see a cop try and force someone to turn over their phone after an accident.

Hope this kind of shit doesn't get the same kind of bullshit pass that checkpoints do.
 
Just get the phone makers to install that "I'm a passenger" prompt they put in Pokémon Go whenever a text is sent while the car is traveling quickly.

:-V
 
lmao fuck this device. Love to see a cop try and force someone to turn over their phone after an accident.

Hope this kind of shit doesn't get the same kind of bullshit pass that checkpoints do.

The makers of this device (and police unions) will undoubtedly lobby to change this to make it a warrantless search. I'm 100% against this bullshit but I can't help but think it's going happen.
 
Will be incredibly useful for forensic analysis of a crash.
I would not want this device in the hands of anything less than a detective. There is plenty of evidence available to the naked eye whether or not someone is fully engaged with the act of driving.
 
What if I was at a red light and quickly answered a text with "k" and the text had nothing to do with my active driving?

You get a ticket. Got one a couple of months back for that thing, quick use of the phone at a stoplight. They had an undercover cop on the corner calling in cars over the radio and squads were pulling people over half a block down.

$130 bucks out the window.
 
If texting while driving is illegal then pets on laps while driving should be illegal also.

I mean texting while driving is worse because you don't have your eyes on the road at all but yeah that's pretty shitty too.

From personal experience though... sometimes it can be an unintentional struggle. Both my and my girlfriend's dogs have climbed on to my lap while I was driving and I've had to shoo them away. Would suck if I got a ticket for that.
 
Not a fan. Last year I had to turn my phone over to the cops to clear myself of involvement in some serious shit and I was a nervous wreck, halfway convinced they'd plant something on there. But it was either turn it over willingly or risk being implicated in a murder investigation, so...

I wouldn't want one of these devices used as casually as checking to see if someone was texting due to the potential misuse of the tech.
 
I mean texting while driving is worse because you don't have your eyes on the road at all but yeah that's pretty shitty too.

From personal experience though... sometimes it can be an unintentional struggle. Both my and my girlfriend's dogs have climbed on to my lap while I was driving and I've had to shoo them away. Would suck if I got a ticket for that.

Put your dog in the backseat or in a kennel then.
 
Good thing my phone has a removable battery, cuz that shit is getting tossed. Sure they might assume it's drugs but it's better than whatever my search history reveals.
 
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