Automatics are for girls Greg !
This is why I drive only automatic shift cars. Gear changing is for neanderthals that feel the need to grab a stick while driving. Si j'ai bien lu Freud.
Precisely why hands free kits are safer. As I said what happens when you have park assist, you have to take both hands off so technically you could be nicked for not being in charge.
Maybe it is different in the Netherlands, but I was taught that it was important to keep both hands on the wheel at all times, with brief exceptions when making manual gear changes.
My new-to-me car (my parents' old one) has an integrated telephone system, the mobile goes in a special box in the armrest between the front seats and you take or end calls with 2 buttons on the steering wheel. There is a microphone next to the ignition, it doesn't stick out or anything, so it is just like talking to someone in the car, I think the person's voice comes through the car radio speakers, certainly the radio disappears automatically when you get a call & returns when you hang up. For outgoing calls the address book comes up on the computer screen & you choose your number with buttons. I haven't tried it out yet.
Up to now I've always used my children as secretaries when I'm driving, or not answered the telephone. If somebody calls me in the new car I'll probably answer even if I'm by myself but I've never made outgoing calls from my car while I'm driving and am not likely to start now.
If you look a bit, it is possible to find reports about countries gradually banning hands free mobiles as well as outlawing use of a regular mobile whilst driving. A number of states in the USA have legislated in 2013 and more since. It looks like a gradual attempt to rein in people driving with a cigarette in one hand, the phone in the other is being made. Will it ever work?
A friend of mine stopped to take a picture and when he resumed driving failed to put his phone down. He was holding it when they stopped him: € 90,-. He copuld prove he was not using it to call or SMS. Holding it was enough for them to book him. Then again... he had a Dutch registration and was clearly not French, which constitutes an infraction in itself.
My translation of
"...l'utilisation du téléphone au volant, notamment l'envoi de SMS."
".... use of telephone whilst driving, especially the sending of SMS". That is "especially" not "exclusively". It's the use of the phone whilst driving which they are against. However as the discussion shows this can be interpreted in different ways by different people and as John pointed out below, we probably need to to wait until the government issues clarification.
Incidentally how does one send a SMS from a built-in system? Does the steering wheel have a keyboard, which you can touch type?
I was suprised to find this from a few years ago
http://www.leparisien.fr/magazine/grand-angle/debat-pour-ou-contre-...
"Les systèmes intégrés dans les véhicules modernes permettent au conducteur de rester concentré. Sur autoroute, une conversation dans une voiture équipée de tels systèmes est sans danger."
So on the autoroute, a conversation from a vehicle with a built-in is without danger, so completely safe? Amazing statement!
This thread reminds me of a film starring Russell Crowe playing a London yuppy who inherits a vineyard in France. It was "A Good Year". He drives along a French country road frantically composing a text message and driving all over the road in the process eventually knocking a lady cyclist off her bike. Perhaps the interior minister saw the movie :-)
Cefn, I think with your command of the french language you should work for Le Parisien and tell them where they went wrong, it was their headline.
I posted on here as a discussion as I was not 100% sure if it really meant that and many people similarly are unsure as the declaration even posted links by other members makes the french regulation ambiguous to say the least. Even the anti camera and driving brigade haven't mentioned an outright ban yet but the report from most sides doesn't spell out if bluetooth such as parrot systems are included. Both Doreen and Peter agreed it doesn't specifically mention anything but headsets and earpieces so unless you actually have anything new which you are welcome to post links to we have to assume from Gregor's post and others who's far better french than mine that it is just earpieces and headphones.
However, rudely entering the discussion won't make you many friends on here and are you 100% certain bluetooth is included? (links please)
It is a point most are now aware of and that was the point of posting the discussion and when the government finally get round to clarifying the document in terms we all understand we will have to wait and see.
Yes but it states quite clearly that 'kits' are involved and 'earpieces', nothing to do with built-in systems.The 'one in ten' bit states that the sending of SMS is the main culprit.
The minister, Bernard Cazeneuve says he wants to 'improve the awareness of the drivers' which is commendable but I recall that during my days as a smoker for example, my sometimes near-lethal attempts to unravel the plastic from the packets ! Our minds can be so easily distracted as i'm sure we will all testify to ?
Cefn,
For the record, I've pasted the French version of the article below:
It definitely says 'hands-free or earpieces". However, this may only apply to 'kits' rather than 'built-in', whatever the difference is.
It does also state that 1 accident in 10 is attributable to use of telephone whilst driving, so in that respect there is no difference between a kit and a built-in hands-free, so it looks like a can of worms.
I suggest you seek clarification from your seller, before abusing the poster, who has acted in good faith.
"Fin du kit mains-libres. Bernard Cazeneuve a également annoncé l'interdiction définitive des kits mains libres ou des oreillettes. Un accident corporel sur dix est lié à l'utilisation du téléphone au volant, notamment l'envoi de SMS. Il s'agit d'améliorer «l'attention des conducteurs», précise le ministère de l'Intérieur."
Haven't tried that one since I was 18 !
all those laws exist already, Ricky ;-)
As for standing on the front seat and hands against the windscreen...
What about putting small kids in car seats and actually putting a seat belt on them, not have them bouncing around on the back seat. And especially not putting them in the front seat.
Probably in truth, but I was thinking about the physical effect of the vibrations on top.
Clearly you don't drive in Paris region. :D
(I avoid to take my car into Paris at all costs: always a taxi or the regular public transport of course...).
I vaguely remember a student rag week thing when they attempted to beat the record for the number of people in one. I think one lot managed something like 16 skinny lads but then could not get it started to class it as driven with that many. As for the 'suspension' I fear to imagine what that suffered. The world record was X (forgotten) which seemed insane then and insaner thinking back on the very notion.
I would have put the two in the same class Brian.
One morning, 0630 actually, whilst waiting for my daughter's school bus another car pulled up beside us. It looked like big bro dropping off his lycée age sister. The music was incredibly loud as it was, you could hear him coming. However, when the girl got out of the car the door was resting against mine. The vibrations, let alone the volume out of the open car, were shocking. If that doesn't distract then I am not sure what it might do. I am not averse to playing music deafeningly loud when I am at home alone, I have done so for half a century so why stop now, but trying to concentrate ain't easy. The people driving with full blast, head moving in synch are far more dangerous than headphone users surely?