How to watch videos while driving

This gentleman likes to watch videos while he drives at night. He places his iPhone on his car's dashboard and watches the reflection on the windshield.

He wears a headset while he watches, but usually with just one ear bud inserted "so that I can hear the traffic and whatnot."

'It's great – I can watch my stuff while I'm driving' (Book of Joe)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Ceronomus

#45 apparently you aren’t living where I am. I’ve been rear ended three times in two years, and had two cars totaled. Last time it was because someone was texting while driving. My wife is STILL in physical therapy thanks to that cretin. I don’t want to sue him, I want to shoot him dead.
Narual

@#41 – I’ve done that before, actually…. before I had GPS, and I hadn’t had access to a printer. I was using a cached copy of a google map. But it was only there for a few seconds…
Rob, Denmark

What an amateur.

I’m waiting for THIS
novalis

Just so it’s clear, choosing the earbuds you want to wear is not up to you, it’s probably been decided by your state government in the US.

And since US states are dictatorships, you have no say whatsoever about what laws your state passes.

This one sentence statement hits precisely that whiny tone that a lot of libertarians get when they don’t like some law. “Why would the state government possibly care if I drive unsafely? After all, the only person ever killed in car accidents is the driver, right?”

The libertarian solution, presumably, is to have no driving laws whatsoever, and then simply allow lawsuits against drivers who fuck up and kill people. This does not address the issue, because a lawsuit cannot compensate a person for being dead. So we pass laws like the ones this dude is whining about. What’s not to like?
Neener

There’s nothing wrong with watching movies while driving
——-
HAHAHHAHHAHHAHHA

Please tell me you were being serious, that quote is so hilarious, but if I missed your sarcasm than I feel like a dork. Please tell me you meant it to be serious.
Dan

What a jackass.
slates81

Nothing improves a late-night dashboard viewing of Leonard Part 6 quite like smashing into the back of a stalled semi at 70 MPH.
Bottlekid

Is this on outtake from “Idiocrasy”?
Jackasimov

Just turn the headrest dvd screen around on the passenger side and watch the reflection in the rearview mirror. Moron. Everyone knows this trick.

And for daylight use just cover your windows in opaque black paper. taDa! Instant home theater on wheels!
Phikus

Yeah, the roads are much safer these days. It seems that every time I see someone pull a total bonehead maneuver, they are holding a phone to their head or doing something else that totally divides their attention.

True story: One day on the way to work on a two-lane highway with a divided median, I come up behind this guy totally swerving across both lanes intermittently. I’m thinkin’ it’s a little early for this guy to be drunk. When he finally sticks to one lane, I move up to pass him quickly, and I glance over to see that he was shaving in his rear view mirror with an electric razor! Obviously he had his priorities strait. I guess everybody he nearly killed on the road that day had a close shave too. *drum hit*
keratacon

It’s always scared me just how many of those kneetop DVD players truck stops sell.
Brettspiel

Not the same as listening to an audiobook or the radio. With an audiobook, you don’t need to constantly change your depth of focus from:
windshield to road beyond windshield to windshield to road beyond windshield, windshield, road beyond windshield,
windshield, road beyond windshield,
windshield, road beyond windshield…
Jackasimov

@Randalll #43. I kind of agree. I know when I’ve used a cellphone while driving it feels as though my brain just flies away into the atmosphere somewhere; it’s very dangerous. With audio books I feel a lot more in control. So, I honestly feel I’d do fine with a TV provided it was placed at the proper level and somewhat transparent.

They actually tested something just like this maybe 10 or 15 years back where the video was either reflected in the windshield or somehow embedded in it like a HUD. Seemed cool to me.
Antinous

Paging Mr. Darwin! Paging Mr. Charles Darwin!
Jackasimov

@Brettspiel #57: Do you think that that could even be a measurable speed? I’d say it happens almost instantaneously. Ah, the human machine…
Mojave

Next week we’ll read about how this guy gets a ticket for endangerment or some such
jahknow

This man is a “great American” in the way that Sean Hannity is a great American.
NuclearMoose

The title of this post should be “How to kill yourself and some complete strangers while driving”.

Where, when, and how did the collective “we” start to think that driving was one bit of our day that we could fit into a multi-tasking routine?

I hope this guy isn’t part of the gene pool.
zandar

“I saw a woman eating a plate of waffles. Not a styrofoam container from a fast food place, but an actual PLATE, balanced on her steering wheel.”

Idiot. Don’t people know you hold the plate in your non-dominant hand, while that hand is also holding the wheel, and you stuff the food in your face with a fork held by the other? Sheesh.

And the proper method for eating a taco- I won’t go into details, but it involves your left knee.
stupidjerk

Wow, I sure am glad I don’t drive anymore…
Jake0748

What could possibly go wrong?
Lazlo Panaflex

ROB DENMARK, you beat me to the punch! I scroll down this whole frickin page looking for someone to mention the (now sadly discontinued) WIRED Artifacts from the Future splash page and well… always the last place you look I guess…
I personally believe that the task of driving is too unpredictable to be left up to a single stupid human.
I don’t have the solution, but I know that an iPhone HUD certainly is not a path I would travel down.
Simon Bradshaw

I have no idea what the legal implications of doing this in the USA are, but it would certainly be illegal in the UK.

Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986/1078
(as amended)

109.â€” Television sets

(1) No person shall drive, or cause or permit to be driven, a motor vehicle on a road, if the driver is in such a position as to be able to see, whether directly or by reflection, a television receiving apparatus or other cinematographic apparatus used to display anything other than informationâ€”

(a) about the state of the vehicle or its equipment;

(b) about the location of the vehicle and the road on which it is located;

(c) to assist the driver to see the road adjacent to the vehicle; or

(d) to assist the driver to reach his destination.

(2) In this regulation â€œtelevision receiving apparatusâ€ means any cathode ray tube carried on a vehicle and on which there can be displayed an image derived from a television broadcast, a recording or a camera or computer.

…and before anyone gets all barrack-room lawyer and says ‘ah, but sub-section 2 refers to CRTs’, my experience is that judges are not actually ignorant literalists and can readily interpret the law as encompassing subsequent developments in display technology.

Remember, when you’re driving you are in command of one or two tons – perhaps much more – moving at speeds several times faster that you can run at. You did not evolve to do this and so any distraction from your hard-learned skills that let you do so is Not A Good Thing.
anaximander

At least in Ontario, this is seriously illegal, and they’ll get you on every count they can dig up if you do it, including reckless – they busted a guy in london doing 140 on the 401 watching a DVD. They’re moving to ban inputting anything into a GPS while the vehicle is in motion, as well. This guy’s a moron.
Takuan

an original idea, myself, I just catch up on my sleep. Rush hour traffic is so predictable.
Anonymous

That’s about as good as the fool I see every couple weeks on my way to work in the morning. He likes to read the newspaper by unfolding it over the steering wheel of his Navigator. Doesn’t anybody just drive the f*cking car anymore? I think everybody needs more stuff to do while they drive around at 90 mph. Need to write a letter? Go for it! Need to make a sandwich? No problem, you’re only driving a 6,000 pound steel box at a mile and a half a minute! Just be sure you only use one ear phone so you can “hear the traffic and whatnot”.

And why did we replace the word “man” with “gentleman”? The term implies good breeding, education or sophistication. None of that is implied by the silly actions of this future traffic accident.
Takuan

(I’m still amused everyone thinks I was joking about napping)
Aloisius

What a moron. Although not the stupidest thing I have seen people do while they drive.
last week, while in traffic, I saw a woman eating a plate of waffles. Not a styrofoam container from a fast food place, but an actual PLATE, balanced on her steering wheel.

That’s when I would have pickd up a phone and called 911 to report the person for reckless driving.
WeightedCompanionCube

How’s this for some video while driving: A coach bus pulls up next to me on the highway at night, and the same porno movie is playing on the TVs behind every window. I just about ran off the road laughing.

I seem to remember an episode of the Red Green show where they stuck a movie screen on the hood of a car. It was a drive-in you could drive around!
jathomas

I agree #4. WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?
V

what a tool.
Anonymous

…in fact, he’s not just driving and watching a video, but he’s also MAKING a video at the same time.

Not only is he multi-tasking the driving with a second activity, but he’s even multi-tasking the second activity with a third.

…and the deep-fryer just finished cooking a batch of hush puppies, which will no doubt require his attention any second now.
justONEguy

Or rather,

How to be the case study that initiates every future law against watching videos while driving.
Mattz

The worst I’ve ever seen my father do while driving that could be considered dangerous (at least more dangerous than when he has both hands on the wheel and something to prove) was eat an ice cream cone.
Dudes been driving for nearly 30 years now and the last accident he had on the road was on a motorcycle aged 20 where he tried to slide round a corner near his home. And this amazing feat of no accidents or injuries was achieved by one simple technique: Do not be the guy who thinks he can multitask reading his paper, checking his email, combing his hair and driving a several tonne hunk of metal at 70mph. Hell, even before it was the law he hated answering his mobile while he was driving.

This douchÃ© on the other hand needs two things: A driving ban and a bus pass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08XAa0LM7cA I feel makes this point.
linx0108

The craziest thing that I saw was while I was filming an episode of Intervention for A&E.

I saw a completely unrelated individual driving next to me on the highway and ducking his head to do blow off his center console. Watch out in White Bear Lake, MN. They’re all friggin crazy.
Jake0748

@6 – Mark likes to use the word “gentleman”, although methinks he is using in wryly in this case.

Otherwise, well said.
ratbastid

I’ve contemplated propping my iPod Touch up on the flap in front of my car radio and playing video off it. Much of what I watch doesn’t require a lot of visual attention beyond a check-in every few seconds–say, about as often as you check your rear-view mirror during regular driving–and I believe most of my attention could stay on the road. I think that would actually probably be safer than this pseudo-heads-up approach that said gentleman has devised.

I haven’t actually done it yet, though, because “safer” != “safe”.
mdhatter

Randall – I think it’s more like text messaging while driving and less like listening to an audiobook while driving (which I also think is too immersive for me, but probably fine for many).
blutec

Driving has become too ‘easy’, I refuse to drive new cars, simply because it makes me feel uber; don’t have any contact with the road, traffic, wheaterconditions etc. and I suddenly (driving in a new car) rely on … (I don’t know really, just rely, and it scares me). In my hometown (small town in the Netherlands) police is now advicing the local governement to take signs away, and not to paint outlines on the road, and it’s working great (it’s in a test fase now): speed is automatically decreased and the attention is on the road and traffic again (scares a lot of ppl and they are complaining: “I used to be sure of this road and could drive it with my eyes closed”, really they say that in the papers, and it never crosses their minds that’s a bad idea/way to drive). Won’t last ofcourse, ppl get used too that, but I’m sure this police dept. has the ability to be creative in a good way, and will come up with more (or less).
I like to drive a car and be a part of all, and if I want automobilia or need to be on my own (in my own little world), I’ll get on a train or get a chauffeur.
W. James Au

When Mark or Pesco call you a “gentleman”, trouble is sure to follow. This gentleman’s license to drive should be replaced with a License To Fail.
gonzilla

I guess you can use the GPS also. But the map would be all backwards or upside down.
markfrei

I’m sorry, but how would *you* watch “2 Fast 2 Furious” or “Smokey and the Bandit II”?

Sheesh.
Ernunnos

#6 I saw that guy too. His pickup had a big old sideswipe scar down the side, and the front bashed in. And yet those previous events clearly had no effect on his literary enjoyment.
Bloodboiler

For a while now, I’ve predicted that when mobile TV comes, traffic safety ends. For now, with portable media players, there is always a chance that morons postpone their video gratification, but live video streaming will force them to watch TV while driving.

Some day soon, a TV watching pedestrian will walk under a truck, on a zebra crossing, while the truck driver is watching the same show he is.
Neener

Where I live, wearing two headphones is against the law. Just so it’s clear, choosing the earbuds you want to wear is not up to you, it’s probably been decided by your state government in the US.
Ceronomus

Frankly, I hope the next person he hits while not paying attention has had access to this video and sues the crap out of him. People wonder why the roads are so dangerous these days? This guy is a prime example of the blatant stupidity out there. Someone should pull this guy’s license.
cubicblackpig

focusing on a single task is horrific and nearly impossible for me

Then you shouldn’t have a bloody driver’s license.

it’s not THAT far removed from listening to an audiobook or having an animated conversation while driving

Well, yes, or anything else that prevents you from actually focussing all your attention on not killing people.

This reminds me of the guy – can’t remember who it was – who argued that the interior of cars shouldn’t be fitted out with seatbelts, airbags, cushioned dashboards and other such Naderian safety devices, but should include a large razor-sharp metal spike fixed to the centre of the steering wheel so as to encourage drivers to TAKE SOME SODDING CARE.
ephzero

The sooner computers take over the driving, the better. Idiots.
The Blow Leprechaun

Having your eyes pointed in the general direction of the road is not the same as watching it.
okcalvin

Hmm. First hands-free driving, now brain-free driving.
Kay the Complainer

I was expecting the video to end with a fatal crash.
mdhatter

There was an accident at a construction site I was working at one day. A guy swerved hist 2006 Mustang off the road into a huge pile of dirt I had (fortunately) placed next to someones house.

The guy had an in Dash DVD player with a retractable screen, he was passed out, and his pants were around his knees – and let’s just say the sound system was still running. Oh, Oh, OH!
Little John

A couple of things occur to me which don’t seem to have been mentioned in the previous comments:

It appears that the heads-up display will portray images reversed, so that left-to-right movement on the iPhone will show as right-to-left movement to the driver/moviegoer, and reading text will be difficult (requiring closer attention from the driver to make it out).

And now I think we have the real reason behind the trend of people riding on car hoods: they’re trying to watch the movie.
Mark Hurst

Watching video? You call that interactive?

For extra fun and even less safety (if that’s even possible), imagine if the iPhone played Grand Turismo or Mario Kart or some other driving game. Then you could use the (real) car’s steering wheel as the input to the game, and then the gameplay would then reflect whatever is happening in real life!
a_user

@81 tannerherriott

I’ve driven a car with a head up speedo and rev counter like the one in the corvette picture (except it wasn’t a corvette). And I actually felt it was a lot safer than having to look at the dash board instrument panel to check my speed.

That said the HUD isn’t interesting enough that you’d be unconsciously drawn to focus on it for longer than the split second it takes to check your speed.

The only downside I could see to the whole idea was you would really make it easy for traffic police to do their job – especially at night – there’s your face with the speed of the car projected over it. Try denying you weren’t going over the limit. Which is probabably why the idea never took off on a larger scale.
ScottyD

When I worked in nightclub security I developed the ability to call someone a “gentleman” or “sir” and have there be no doubt that I meant “asshole”. I imagine that this is the text medium equivalent.
Fooksie

What a moron. Although not the stupidest thing I have seen people do while they drive.
last week, while in traffic, I saw a woman eating a plate of waffles. Not a styrofoam container from a fast food place, but an actual PLATE, balanced on her steering wheel.
obeyken

Well if you think that is cool, I’m currently working on a device that will allow me to shoot heroin while riding my motorcycle.
jonathan_v

i hope this guy doesn’t get into an accident, but if he does i hope its with some inanimate object like a large rock

this is dangerous, stupid, and illegal. he shouldn’t have a license.
manicbassman

hmmm perhaps he should meet up with the van driver who pulled out of a layby on me this morning…

very close near appointment with my maker…

he’d never have seen the van pull out so he’d have smashed right into the back…
stratojoe

On my dashboard is a little black piece of paper that I replace every so often when the sun fades it. On it are three concentric circles painted in white, centered over a thin cross. The sense of relief I get by pressing the imaginary trigger buttons at ten and two when swerving jackasses barrel across my line of fire keeps me sane.

I guess one day I might lose my mind and try to lead a target around a turn and get myself into a serious wreck, but so far I’ve been able to keep my grip on reality.
Anonymous

As a law student, this warms the cockles of my little black heart. And I’m not even going into tort law!
airshowfan

1) That reminds me of this:
http://www.break.com/index/hands-free-safe-drivers.html

2) When I have a long drive coming up, sometimes I will take a screenshot of the directions, do Ctrl+I (so they’re white letters on a black background), flip horizontally, print the result, and put it on the dash. Only works during the day, though. When I got an eee pc I thought of making a HUD for my car that would do this electronically in real time (by lying the display down on the dash and have it show white-text-on-black, mirrored around) but I like my eee pc too much to try something that would involve this level of tinkering.

3) #75: Totally!
Zombie

I hope the only person killed in the accident this man is sure to cause is him. How, in any universe is driving like that a good idea?!
microcars

hey that gives me an idea for MAKE!

get two iPhones or iTouches and set them side by side on the dash so you get 2 screen images reflected,press play at the same time, focus on infinity and you will be able to see a 3D video while driving!

cool!

and you can MAKE! it yourself.

what ELSE! can we MAKE! while DRIVING! ?
NuclearMoose

Going off topic, but inspired by #69 comments: road rage seems to me to be a product of our ego-centric societies in the West.

I was in Cebu City in Feb 2008 – a city of over a million people – and they have very few roads so you can imagine the congestion. Well, after a couple of days, I realize that they move way more people on fewer roads than do we, mostly because of a simple concept we have forgotten; courtesy.

I never once saw an example of road rage in over a month there, and that includes my being in taxis that did a u-turn that blocked at least two sometimes three lanes of traffic. What did everyone do? They stopped and let the driver finish the turn. That is a much more efficient way to deal with it than swerving around and blocking the guy there forever.

Courtesy and common sense – Cebuano drivers have it in copious quantities. Maybe they can export some of it to the West. Curiously they weren’t watching TV while they drove either…
Regis

There’s nothing wrong with watching movies while driving, I do it all the time. Driving is not brain surgery. You are constantly reading while driving – street signs, billboards. You are planning your day or thinking about other things. You are listening to the radio, talking to passengers, maybe even chewing gum! Don’t be a bunch of old ladies.
autosoft

Hey I intend to take my 50″ widescreen, and, by using a system of mirrors, reflect it off the windshield so that I can properly view my movies while I am driving my 18 wheeler.

This will relax me so that I will be more alert to the vehicles I compress with my front bumper, thus I can keep a good count. Additionally, because the taillights and headlights will still show through the video, I will be able to see how far I am able to propel them off into the foliage.
afo

hey come on! to be fair, maybe this guy only drives at night, in the middle of nowhere, with no traffic, no stop lights or signs, and the road continues down a perfectly straight line forever.

hmm… nope, still dumb.
EH

In California it’s illegal for video to be visible by the driver. This is why navigation systems (typically) do not have the ability to play DVDs.
w000t

I’d try this, but I’d be afraid that driving would be too much of a distraction from my videos.
curtismayfield

#57,
That’s why watching videos while driving is such good exercise for your eye muscles, resulting in better eyesight.
If you wear glasses or contacts, take them off while driving and watching videos. After a few months of doing so on a daily basis, your eyesight will have improved to the point where you no longer need the corrective aids.
Regis

Driving is boring. Without my stories I might fall asleep at the wheel. Seriously, is anyone here capable of multitasking?
rob1000

People now treat their car like a living room. They eat, drink, watch tv, talk on the phone….

I was rear-ended by a guy adjusting the top of his soothie. He never touched the brakes of his SUV.
umgrego2

Okay, I’ve got two more, “yeah well you should’ve seen the guy who …” stories.

1. I was driving down I-29 one time late at night. This guy passes me with a portable dvd player on his dashboard. He was driving alone and the dashboard was curved so he had to hold the dvd player with one hand. And given my speed and the rate at which he passed me, I’d guess he was pushing 100 mph.

2. I was on my bike and waiting at a red light. Another dude on his bike was across the intersection and was also stopped at the red light. No helmet, headphones in both ears and talking on his cellphone as he decides to ride through the red light. This one really floored me because it was the same intersection where I was hit by a car running a red light.
dragonfrog

#62, Simon Bradshaw

It’s a shame they only include TVs installed inside the car. Do they have those giant blindingly-bright animated LED billboards in the UK?

Personally, I think the things should be banned. There’s one near my house, which distracts you in the day and outright blinds you in the night, just as you approach a busy intersection. Busy, but not outrageously complicated – and yet I’ve seen more accidents and near misses at that intersection than pure chance should dictate. I blame a combination of drunks leaving concerts, rush-hour suburbanites hurrying home, and that stupid billboard-TV thing.
QSD

I’m reminded of a saying from my university days: “Never drink while driving… you might spill.”
decultured

Something about this makes me think that the author of this video is a very successful (judging by the number and ferocity of the comments) troll.
Phikus

JAHKNOW@104: Bwahahahahahaha!
Mark Temporis

I listen to my phone/mp3 player while driving. People who ask ‘why can’t people just drive?’ are nsnstv sshls — focusing on a single task is horrific and nearly impossible for me, giving me intense headaches — maybe he has a similar thing?
Anonymous

To Regis #31:
So what you’re saying is you can’t stand to go without video stimulation for more than a few minutes at a time? And that you’re willing to endanger others’ lives because of your fear of not being entertained continuously?

You, sir, are a true gentleman. In the Frauenfeldian sense.
mcarrick

What an asshole.
Steve Stair

That’s nothing new. I know a truck driver who puts a portable TV on the back of the seat next to him, so the image is reflected in the windshield. And he is on the road a LOT.
mdhatter

@Regis – “Don’t be a bunch of old ladies.

But some of us would like to become old ladies, and watching TV while driving is not a step in that direction.
Jackasimov

Off topic but still annoying: when the radio programs I listen to (NPR) play city sound-bytes that feature prominent car horn honking or sirens. Fuckzez me up everytimes.
Captain Squiffy

Actually, back when GPS first started to be installed in cars, Cadillac had this nifty system in their upscale models that projected the screen onto the windshield just like Mr. Ipod loser’s hack. It was pulled pretty quick.
Anonymous

I don’t know which is more stupid: Actually doing this while driving, or admitting it to the world on the web.
remmelt

> your eyesight will have improved to the point where you no longer need the corrective aids.

Because you’ll be dead?
banjology

#72 curtismayfield

I can’t tell which is dumber, watching a movie while driving, or taking off your glasses/contacts when you drive…
jimkirk

I once saw a guy with an open notebook computer propped up on his steering wheel. Driving on a six lane highway. Yikes!
John Markos O’Neill

Next you’re going to show us how to watch videos *and* clean our ears while driving, right?
randalll

Not to be troll, but I don’t see why this is such a huge deal. Yeah, he could be safer by not doing this, but it’s not THAT far removed from listening to an audiobook or having an animated conversation while driving.
Keeper of the Lantern

Hey! So what!
Right now I am thumbing this comment into my handheld while crusing down the Grand Central…no probleaaflkjqefok1239o123lk

my god
i ran into a ditch bwtn exits 43 and 44
someone call me an ambulance i think my leg is broken…wait i can see the bone sticking out
bardfinn

This Gentleman’s Name Wouldn’t Happen To Be Robert Novak, Would It?
kimbatch

this is really disturbing … how long before he has an accident and kills someone?? get off the road and get a life.
Chorske

Driving is by far the most dangerous thing most of will ever do, precisely because of people that think that it’s “automatic” or “easy” or doesn’t require that much attention.
Phikus

REGIS: Multitasking is one thing. Completely dividing your attention to the road or your driving is another. No one is taking away your precious stories, so beat that straw man elsewhere. Let me explain so perhaps you’ll begin to get the obvious (if not for you, for others on the road you endanger with whatever you are doing that seems to you to pass for thinking.)

Audio = OK

Hands free = OK

Anything that competes continually for your visual attention and / or hands (which we assume you use for driving) = Not OK.

It’s that whole idea that getting where you’re going is more important than how entertained you are in transit. I get that you want your audio books or whatever to stay awake. Good. Awake is a start. Alert is required by law. -Good laws that save people’s lives.

Ok, wasn’t that simple? Try not to think too hard about it, just tuck those nuggets of wisdom away. There you go. Feel better now?

If not, you can go back to hosting “Who Wants To Be An Asphault-smear?” Regis.

STEVE STAIR: And I have been rear-ended by a semi-tanker-truck in what ended up being a five-car pileup on a totally stopped freeway. Idiot truck drivers are nothing new either.
Jerril

@#36:

I once saw a guy with an open notebook computer propped up on his steering wheel. Driving on a six lane highway. Yikes!

When I was on Helldesk, I took a call from one of our employees, as he was driving down the highway with his notebook open (hopefully on the passenger seat and not balance precariously – because I’d have to get it fixed if he dropped it…) With a cellular modem, I might add. So my guy beats your guy by driving down the highway, talking on the cellphone, and troubleshooting his laptop’s VPN connection back to home base.

To this DAY I’m amazed my ticket didn’t end with “Client terminated call early by rear-ending a semi-trailer.”
tannerherriott

probably not the smartest thing in the world, but I can’t say I won’t try it.

yea, and don’t use the headphones – plug it into a tapedeck adapter (just in case you’re looking for stereo in your illegal iPhone/driving experience).

btw – Chevrolet did something like this with a heads up display in the corvette
http://www.dupont.com/safetyglass/en/newsEvents/images/hud_corvette_2005.jpg
BasilGanglia

As a psychologist who’s primary mode of transportation is bicycling, I find this horrific. This guy may only have a car to lose in the event of a crash, but those of us out on the roads without a 6000 lb metal box around us a very likely to lose out lives around this guy. He (and anyone else who talks on the phone or listens to podcasts or whatever) may think his attention is on the road, but it is not. We as humans are HORRIBLE judges of our own mental state in general, and our judgments of our attention and alertness are no exception. And, as most of the internet has seen with the moonwalking bear video, we are very selective about what we let into our perception. We tend to see only things we expect to see.

He may not get himself killed, but he is very likely to kill someone else.
Anonymous

“Next week we’ll read about how this guy gets a ticket for endangerment or some such”

No he won’t. Normal laws do not apply if you are in your freedom cage. If a freedom cage causes a death, it’s *always* an accident.
TJIC

@#17:

> Frankly, I hope the next person he hits while not
> paying attention has had access to this video and
> sues the crap out of him. People wonder why the
> roads are so dangerous these days?

The roads are safer today than they’ve ever been.
lofarabia

Man, there’s so much criticism of this guy. People, he keeps one of the earphones out to hear traffic! If that’s not the very essence of responsible driving, I don’t know what is.
ZombiePirate

Idiot.
boing_x

F this guy. Try to run people like this off the road. Seriously. Preemptive strike.
mgfarrelly

#5 @Takuan:

Where do I send the bill for my new keyboard, I believe my current one too water damaged to be usable.

I’d like to see footage from outside the car. Say, what a police officer would see driving up on this brain-stem.
jackie31337

#63 WeightedCompanionCube

“How’s this for some video while driving: A coach bus pulls up next to me on the highway at night, and the same porno movie is playing on the TVs behind every window. I just about ran off the road laughing.”

Was this by any chance in Denmark, Sweden, or Finland near the end of 1997?
vetlemakt

Why not take it further? Have your computer up there instead, and mod a steering wheel to function as keyboard. Hell, why stop there? A trackball on the gearshift, and you’re set for those late night rounds of Team Fortress!
Wait, what am I thinking… Need For Speed, yeah? You’ve already got your wheel, pedals and stick?

Someone seeing this clip is bound to try it out. My guess is, quite a lot will give it a go, ofwhich one or more are likely to have an accident happen.

We have children in our cars, you stupid, stupid man. Plant your arse in the sofa like the rest of us!
mdhatter

The roads are safer today than they’ve ever been.

He says from the crew cab of his F-350.