Judge Throws out Lawsuit Putting Apple at Fault for Texting and Driving Accidents

Megalith

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A father whose son was killed by a driver texting on his iPhone blamed Apple for its failure to implement a lockout system, but a judge wasn’t convinced the company was a factor in the incident. The case was partly dismissed based on another, similar lawsuit arguing Apple was responsible for distracted driving accidents, which was deemed unreasonable.

Apple has the ability to outfit its iPhones with a lock-out device that would disable the smartphone while being used by motorists. In fact, it has had this technology since 2008, and was granted a patent on it by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2014. Yet, fearful that such a device would cause it to lose valuable market share, Apple refuses to employ the technology, choosing instead to allow the massive carnage to occur.
 
While it's obvious from the get go, this father is clearly not handling the grief well and felt like he needed blame put somewhere.

Or it could have been a sad money grab attempt.
 
"I'm sorry your son is dead, but it's his fault, not that of Apple. Case closed."

Could have come to that decision months ago within 30 seconds of the opening arguments and saved a lot of taxpayer money and time, really.
 
The determination is probably by asking a question like "are you driving" and then the person saying no and bypassing it completely. Thus making it the drivers fault anyways.

I don't see how you can blame the phone manufacturer for someone using it in a way that's in a lot of cases against the law. Even if they enabled a driving mode a percentage of people would still ignore it and use their phone anyways.
 
"I'm sorry your son is dead, but it's his fault, not that of Apple. Case closed."

Could have come to that decision months ago within 30 seconds of the opening arguments and saved a lot of taxpayer money and time, really.

Well, it wasn't his son's fault either....
 
This would of set a bad precedence if he won. Not just for Phone manufacturer but most industries.
 
"I'm sorry your son is dead, but it's his fault, not that of Apple. Case closed."

Could have come to that decision months ago within 30 seconds of the opening arguments and saved a lot of taxpayer money and time, really.
It wasn't the son's fault, he got killed by the texting driver. Of course the only reason this was even a thing, is because Apple has a bunch more money than the driver who was responsible for his son being killed.

And gee, it's not a real surprise that Apple can detect when the phone is in a moving vehicle... and that disabling the use of their devices by passengers in a moving vehicle since they can't actually tell who the driver is... would be an idiotic thing for them to implement.
 
Ok, I admit I worded that rather badly but I won't edit it now since it'll look silly to see people calling me out wondering why I suppose, it should have said "I'm sorry your son is dead, but the fault does not lie with Apple..." instead. My bad, should have realized it before I hit the Post Reply button. :facepalm:
 
And just how would the phone tell the difference between stupid phone calls/texting by the driver and emergency phone calls/texting by the driver? And how long for the resulting lawsuit when the phone got it wrong and someone died because of the phone blocking a call for help?

Judge got this one right. Blame the idiot driver who wasn't paying attention.
 
And gee, it's not a real surprise that Apple can detect when the phone is in a moving vehicle... and that disabling the use of their devices by passengers in a moving vehicle since they can't actually tell who the driver is... would be an idiotic thing for them to implement.
I dunno, how accurate is the GPS? How accurate are the maps? could assume you are the driver based on GPS positioning of your phone with respect to the road, then some algorithm to figure out if you're in the front seat or the back seats.

But yeah, I hate how my Rav4 fucking locks out entering an address for the nav system when the car is moving. Yeah I get it, there are more single passenger cars then dual passenger cars, but it makes it inconvenient as all hell when a passenger could just as easily enter an address while I am driving.

And just how would the phone tell the difference between stupid phone calls/texting by the driver and emergency phone calls/texting by the driver? .
I dunno, if the phone number entered is 911 (or whatever your local emergency number is) the it's probably an emergency phone call.
 
Another dumbass looking to make a quick buck, and the nerve to call himself a father?
 
....I dunno said:
There are emergency scenarios that don't involve a driver making an outgoing call. A panicked babysitter trying to call a parent in a car with "The baby ate something and reacted poorly, where's the epipen?" as one. Especially if the babysitter is in a rural household 20 minutes from EMS.

And even in your 911 scenario, what if the driver dials the wrong number and the phone goes into lockdown?
 
The father should sue himself for not teaching his son to stay off the fucking phone.

Nobody has accountability anymore.
 
The father should sue himself for not teaching his son to stay off the fucking phone.

Nobody has accountability anymore.

And here's another clown who couldn't be bothered to read the first sentence of the first post, let alone the actual article.

A father whose son was killed by a driver texting
 
can't get money from the distracted driver, so let's sue the biggest piggy bank in the world in hopes they will settle.

Who's gonna sue budweiser for not stopping people from drinking too much beer ?

practice defensive driving, and use the horn liberally.
 
And here's another clown who couldn't be bothered to read the first sentence of the first post, let alone the actual article.
Sorry, I just woke up after a long night. I'll own that fuckup.

However, it's still not Apple's fault, and I'm not an Apple fan. People still need to learn to not be fuckups. I'm beginning to think that there need to be more stringent rules for being able to get your license. I've witnessed the driving skills of people progressively get worse over several years, including my own grandmother's. There was a point where she should not have been allowed to have a license and if they retested every few years instead of blindly renewing people like her and that asshat that can't pay attention may have been weeded out.
 
I worked with a startup that is trying to solve the problem of detecting drivers vs passengers. I won't go into details (patent pending) - but he actually has a system that could probably work. The problem: you needed system level access to implement the system on any device. It also required special hardware. So unless you Apples and Samsungs of the world start using the tech/software from this startup, it would never work.

Apple is adding an "opt out" feature in iOS 11. It would be a good feature for people that are actually trying not to use their phone while driving. I doubt it would have mattered in this case.

I no longer use my phone unless I'm in hands free mode when driving. I can wait. I also don't want to be an asshole and kill someone over a stupid phone call/chat/whatever.
 
I dunno, how accurate is the GPS? How accurate are the maps? could assume you are the driver based on GPS positioning of your phone with respect to the road, then some algorithm to figure out if you're in the front seat or the back seats.

But yeah, I hate how my Rav4 fucking locks out entering an address for the nav system when the car is moving. Yeah I get it, there are more single passenger cars then dual passenger cars, but it makes it inconvenient as all hell when a passenger could just as easily enter an address while I am driving.


I dunno, if the phone number entered is 911 (or whatever your local emergency number is) the it's probably an emergency phone call.
GPS is not that accurate. In bumper to bumper traffic it can't even reliably tell you which car you are in.
 
The case has no merit. Your son is dead because he didn't have common sense.
Do any of you even read the **** article
The case was brought to court by David Riggs, whose son was killed in 2013 when he was hit by a driver who was texting. The driver was charged with a misdemeanor for driving while distracted by his iPhone, but Riggs wanted to place the blame on Apple for its failure to implement a lockout system.
In a lot of way I agree people just don't pay attention to road man I can't count how min close call I have had because some other butt wipe was on there phone
 
I dunno, how accurate is the GPS? How accurate are the maps? could assume you are the driver based on GPS positioning of your phone with respect to the road, then some algorithm to figure out if you're in the front seat or the back seats.

Really really really good GPS is accurate to within a few feet. A phone does not have really really really good GPS, it has OK GPS, and it's worse in cities where line of sight to the sky is obstructed. You're generally talking ~15 foot accuracy. Plenty of car navigation, no where close to accurate enough to tell what seat in a car you're in. Not that Apple knows where the car is either - you could be in rear seat(s), too (cab, bus, etc...)
 
Let blaime technogloy for not stopping me beeing stupid...

I really don't care even if apple had the tecnhology to use Wifi as a radar to scan the vehicle form and a rick technolohy based intertimestellar GPS that could pintpoint the hair position on your balls.
its not Apple job to be police. The person that drove did a stupid things.. had made that choice. he took that decision to give hell to other peoples security and should be the one that is to be blaimed..
 
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