U.S. Transportation secretary Ray LaHood said he will not issue a nationwide ban on using cell phones and hand-free devices while driving, as proposed recently by the National Transportation Safety Board. LaHood believes that hands-free calling is not a problem in the United States, and his stance certainly supports the auto and mobile industries. Ford, for example, equips several of its car models with Ford Sync hands-free technology. A ban on hands-free devices would likely prevent the company from selling ...

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) voted on Tuesday to recommend that all states ban the use of using cell phones while driving, whether for talking or texting. It is also recommending that states ban hands-free devices, which are typically used as a safety measure among those who do place phone calls while driving. “No call, no text, no update is worth a human life,” NTSB chairman Deborah Hersan said. “This is a difficult recommendation, but it’s the right recommendation and it’s...

A new research study published by the Governor’s Highway Safety Association (GHSA) suggests that cell phone use directly increases crash risk among U.S. drivers. The group studied 350 scientific papers that were published between 2000 and 2010 on highway safety. Distractions, which include cell phone use, are responsible for between 15% and 25% of all crashes, including minor fender benders all the way up to fatal accidents. The report also said that there is “no conclusive evidence on whether han...

TomTom has announced that its HD Traffic service, originally only available on the Go 2535 M LIVE personal navigation device, is now available for all drivers using its LIVE products. HD Traffic updates drivers every two minutes with road conditions, and it gathers its data from a variety of sources — including from other driers on the road with HD Traffic — to steer you towards the fastest possible route. The service is available on the GO 740 LIVE, XL 340 LIVE, and GO 2535 M LIVE, and TomTom dropped the...

On the same day Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit finally found its way to store shelves, EA has officially announced the next big driving simulator in the storied franchise — Need for Speed: SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED. Accompanied by a trailer that does little beyond shrouding the upcoming title in mystery, SHIFT 2 will be the sequel to EA’s popular game, Need for Speed: SHIFT. “SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED is redefining immersive racing by blending the rush of tearing up the track at unbelievable speeds with the emotional ...

If you’re an iPhone owner, you have to pay for your turn-by-turn GPS applications (at this point all the Android users are smiling ear-to-ear). If you’ve been holding off on purchasing an iPhone navigation application due to the cost, NAVIGON may have something for you. In honor of their one year App Store anniversary the company has temporarily cut the prices on their navigation offerings by fifty percent. The new pricing is as follows:Applications:MobileNavigator North America (includes maps for...

You might have seen us post something on the new Garmin GPS solution for the OQO model 02. It’s a great concept and we’ve had the opportunity of reviewing it recently. If you buy the whole package, which is the car mount for the actual OQO and the Garmin USB GPS device, you’d have what we have. While it’s nice in theory, you can see from the above video what sort of trouble we ran into. If you totally want to skip the video, these are our issues with the package:To get an initial satel...