Texting while driving has become an epidemic that Americans face on a daily basis. Too many lives have been lost or permanently damaged due to the repercussions that many didn’t consider. And yet ninety-four percent of teen drivers acknowledged the dangers of texting and driving, but still thirty-five percent admitted to doing it anyway and as a result twenty-one percent of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by their cell phones. Meanwhile the overall statistics are even higher; the National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year resulting in nearly 330,000 injuries annually.
The creators behind Tesla and Zipcar have executed a solution to this problem by introducing Drive Mode. Drive Mode is a preinstalled application that disables the use of texting, Facebook, and countless other applications that lead to distracted driving. Drive mode seamlessly switches applications to a hands-free experience with tap-to-answer calling, voice-to-text response and reading messages out loud from services such as
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AT&T uses Drive Mode, Sprint uses an application called Drive First, and Verizon uses Safely Go. While Sprint does require additional downloads, it has been viewed as a favorite in the market. They require a login with a phone number and also function with multiple applications. These applications have been a game changer, they have not only introduced a solution to restricting texting while driving, but they have given parents a way to monitor teens while they are on the road. This new method of restricting cell phone use has given parents the ability to monitor the use of cell phones while in high speed motion, sends automatic replies to text messages that the driver is behind the wheel, and probably most appreciated of all, doesn’t drain the battery while