Cars would be safer with no phone connection at all | comment

As I was picking up the Suzuki Celerio test car this week, I noticed a sticker on the rear window with a very simple safety message. It read: "Please never ever txt or phone me while I'm driving."

I like it. And if it helps to get people thinking about the dangers of texting on the go and the distraction of phones in general, I'm a fan.

If you're doing 100km/h, you cover 140m in five seconds, which resonates when you think about the distractions in modern cars.

In my ideal world there would be no telephone connection to cars

It could easily take five seconds to check a text message. Or to walk halfway across a road.

In my ideal world there would be no telephone connection to cars.

I know that chatting on the telephone is fun and fills the time on any run, from the shortest commute to an interstate grind, and there are some incoming messages that can't wait.

Then there is email...

But I enjoy a little solitude and believe that driving is more important than sitting comatose at the wheel while a car gets you to your destination.

The disconnected car is never going to happen and makers are doing all they can to make us more connected, including tech that reads your texts and emails to you on the go. If you need fuel, there are cars that will find the nearest pumps.

And the connected drive means cars will soon be able to pre-book a parking slot at an agreed price.

But this is all creating more fuzz and distraction, in a car world where it's easier and easier — have you had a distracted pedestrian walk in front of you lately? — to get sucked into a nasty situation.