iPhone Satnav Apps While Driving Illegal - NZ Govt

[OLLIE 26]

The Transport Ministry has clarified the terms of a new law that restricts the use of cellphones in cars, saying that from November it will be illegal to use a mobile phone as a satellite navigation aid while driving.

2degrees chief executive Eric Hertz admitted rear-ending another vehicle at an intersection in Auckland a few weeks ago while glancing at directions on his iPhone, which was mounted on a hands-free kit in his car.

Under the new law, that would be illegal, Transport Ministry spokesman John Summers confirmed. "The Road User Amendment Rule 2009 means drivers will not be able to look at a navigation aid on a mobile phone when driving, even if it is mounted on the dashboard.

"You can use a mobile phone held in a cradle while driving, but only to make, receive or terminate a phone call. You cannot use them in any other way, such as reading a GPS map, reading email or consulting an electronic diary."

The restriction does not apply to navigation systems that do not have a mobile phone function, he says.Mr Hertz expressed surprise at a media report that claimed the other vehicle involved in the accident had been a write-off and that its driver had suffered back injuries requiring weeks off work.

He was not aware of any injuries and the crash was not reported to police.

"We had a chat and exchanged licence plate numbers and insurance details. We both drove off. It was, from my perspective, a relatively minor fender-bender."

original article at stuff.co.nz

A Response from iphonewzealand.co.nz

The article quotes Transport Ministry spokesman John Summers as saying “The Road User Amendment Rule 2009 means drivers will not be able to look at a navigation aid on a mobile phone when driving, even if it is mounted on the dashboard. You can use a mobile phone held in a cradle while driving, but only to make, receive or terminate a phone call. You cannot use them in any other way, such as reading a GPS map, reading email or consulting an electronic diary.”

Want some salt for that wound? While the government is adamant your copy of TomTom or Sygic for iPhone is going to wreck lives and kill people, it is perfectly happy for you to have a dedicated Sat Nav unit. It’s also perfectly happy for you to put a paper map on the passenger seat and have you glance down at that.

We’re pretty fired up about this. There is absolutely zero difference between using a dedicated GPS system and using a properly mounted iPhone (or any other mobile device) with good quality turn-by-turn navigation software. Right now, people are spending hundreds of dollars on navigation apps for a plethora of smartphone platforms in good faith. They’re buying them because it’s safer to have your device verbally tell you where you’re going than it is to struggle with a paper map. They’re buying them because the technology is tried and tested and it’s simply converging several devices into one.

But the New Zealand nanny state knows better than you. It knows better than every country in the world! So what if its good enough for the US, the UK, Australia, Canada… what do those countries know? We’re New Zealand and we know best. Let’s welcome the tourists from those other countries, but then when they get here with their satellite navigation systems which they stupidly bought thinking it would actually make them safer (the fools!), let’s pull them over and ruin their holiday with a big fat fine. Let’s force them to use paper maps and put our own families at risk. Let’s send them home telling their friends and family what a backward nation we are!

Once again our know-it-all government is about to thrust a law onto its citizens that it has ill-researched and ill-written. Yes, Eric Hertz of 2degrees rear-ended a car because he was using Google Maps on his iPhone. But you know what? Eric Hertz is an idiot if that’s the kind of thing he does. Google Maps isn’t a turn-by-turn navigation aid. Those of us that aren’t idiots have made smart investments in the appropriate software and we’re damned if we’re going to let the government tell us we can’t use them.

Furthermore, we’d like to know exactly what the government are planning to do to stop people from buying these apps from now on. We’re just two months away from this farce becoming law, and NOW they decide to tell us we’re throwing our money away if we buy these apps? Will they re-imburse us? What are they doing to stop more people from falling into this trap? It is irresponsible and immoral to continue to allow people to buy these applications when the government is going to outlaw in just a few weeks time.

So what can we do? We are thinking about that. We intend to be as public with our opposition to this facet of the law and make as much noise about it as possible. In the meantime, please sign our petition (below) and let us know your thoughts.

sign the petition here

Personally my thoughts are ... This is a very shortsighted law change and has clearly not had any thought behind it whatsoever. Technology is here to improve our lives, we need to embrace it, we also need to realise that the technology is not the problem, the people using it are.

Whilst I agree with the banning of cellphone use while driving I think this new law is ridiculous. What difference is a dash mounted iPhone running the tom tom GPS app to a dash mounted tom tom GPS unit. I challenge anyone to find a difference that makes one more distracting than the other.

[OLLIE 26]

the government should be subsidising GPS and productivity centred iPhone apps.

safer than a map book

better than a map book

increased productivity... Good for our economy ...

this is the kind of technology we need to embrace, what retarded backward minded idiot on earth would shun it by making it illegal?!!

Same with the speed limit, increase it. Increase productivity, improve economy. Cars are built to cope with the increased speed now and have a myriad of safety features.

people will adapt over time ...

[darkwolf 0]

Surely you can see why this has been done though. I mean, you get pulled over by the police for texting.

"Sorry officer, I was just adjusting my GPS..."

If you get pulled over adjusting your real GPS it's a no-brainer that you aren't texting.

EDIT:

I'd challenge anyone to come up with a distinctive way of preventing such a thing from happening.

Edited September 28, 2009 by DarkWolf

[OLLIE 26]

people are going to text anyway, except now they'll be glancing down at their phone between their legs instead of holding it up by the steering wheel so they don't have to take their eyes off the road as much.

[APT 195]

What about people that saves maps on there ipod touch ? It aint a mobile phone

[Guest Ari Gold]

Totally agreed, but Eric Hertz was a moron for using an application that doesn't talk to you (as far as I'm aware?)

[zenetti 0]

seems the petition has closed and the matter resolved??????

Edited September 28, 2009 by zenetti

[hotwire 352]

"The restriction does not apply to navigation systems that do not have a mobile phone function"

So a Beemer with factory nav + Bluetooth integration is illegal then

[bravo 35]

A bit too quick there Ollie. Follow up article dated yesterday (thank f**k for that - it would have been ludicrous!):

We have just received an email from the press secretary to Steven Joyce, Minister of Transport, in response to an email we sent to Andrew Knackstedt of the NZ Transport Agency this morning. In it, we have received confirmation that the Road User Amendment Rules 2009 is to be amended to allow the continued use of GPS Navigation apps in mobiles phones.

In our email to Mr Knackstedt this morning we posed the following questions:

1) Why does the ministry consider that using good quality turn-by-turn GPS navigation aids on a mobile device such as an iPhone represents more of a hazard than a dedicated GPS unit such as a TomTom, Navman etc. despite their implementation and use being almost exactly identical?

2) Is there evidence to support this belief by way of our investigations / studies / reports? What research has the government done prior to the introduction of this particular facet of the legislation?

3) Why has the government continued to allow the sale of devices with this functionality built-in, and the sale of add-on applications specifically for this purpose despite intending to ban their use?

4) Does the government plan to ban the sale / purchase of such software going forward and if not why not? Surely consumers and businesses need to be protected?

5) It would appear to me that this software becomes illegal as a result of sloppy wording in the legislation rather than a direct and intentional ban of this technology. If this is the case, can the wording of the law be reviewed to exempt the use of navigation aids?

The email was passed on to the Ministry of Transport’s press secretary who has replied with the following:

Your enquiry has been onpassed to me.

The Road User amendment rule that contains restrictions on cell phone use is designed to discourage motorists from talking on their hand held cell phones or texting while driving. Voice calling is permitted, provided the phone is in a mounted hands-free device,

It is not the intent of the rule to make it illegal for motorists to use the satellite navigation or music functions of their cell phones, provided these are mounted in the vehicle and are manipulated infrequently.

It is also not intended to discriminate against one kind of satellite navigation device or another. However, with all of these devices it is important to set them up while the vehicle is stationary as they are all potential distractions in a moving vehicle.

The Minister this afternoon met with officials and instructed them to amend the rule accordingly.

I hope that helps.

Kind regards,

Anita

Anita Ferguson

Press Secretary

Office of Hon Steven Joyce

Minister of Transport

Minister for Communications and Information Technology

Associate Minister of Finance

Associate Minister for Infrastructure

This is fantastic news – it’s great that the minister acted so quickly and that common sense has prevailed. We’d like to thank everyone that took the time to sign our petition this morning.

[DRTDVL 0]

this was amended on the news last night also...

[RyanG 0]

Bullshit law is bullshit.

[OLLIE 26]

Link

[antil33t 90]

What's next, Are they going to ban head units that have animations?

[martyyn 2]

Read the ammendment fellas and get off your soap boxes

[hybrid 1044]

There is absolutely zero difference between using a dedicated GPS system and using a properly mounted iPhone

Please correct me if I'm wrong and im only basing this info off my friends iphone with maps. There is a sh*t load of difference between them. The main one being a dedicated sat nav system has voice directions, and there isn't the tempation to 'fiddle' while driving which realistically is what happens when people 'drive' with a cell phone in reach. Iphone or not.

also the comment thats its a bullshit law isn't correct either, I cannot wait for this to come in. I can then maybe drive without the worry of some d*ck head yet again on his phone behind me and locking it up because they aren't doing what they are spose to be doing. ****ing driving!

[Guest Simon*]

TomTom iphone app

Apparently has voice directions and automatically can link to addresses in your contacts list

[bravo 35]

As Simon points out, they're referring to dedicated nav apps on iphone - not google maps. It's the same as buying a standalone unit. The above links explain in depth.

[hybrid 1044]

Sweet, if they make it for phone lockout mode when using them in gps mode, the safer it will be to drive in auckland in rush hour.

[Grant 4]

Please correct me if I'm wrong and im only basing this info off my friends iphone with maps. There is a sh*t load of difference between them. The main one being a dedicated sat nav system has voice directions, and there isn't the tempation to 'fiddle' while driving which realistically is what happens when people 'drive' with a cell phone in reach. Iphone or not.

Josh

You can get a proper satnav on your iPhone now (with windscreen holder etc as well). This has turn by turn voice commands etc.

Cheers

Grant

Edit: Whoops, I was far too late!

Edited September 30, 2009 by Grant

[raymondt 1]

Apparently has voice directions and automatically can link to addresses in your contacts list

Yep got this tomtom app for my iphone and is a lot better than the navman s35 I had IMO

Gets a satellite lock almost twice as fast and gotta love the address link feature