FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is just entering the second quarter of his term, but has already racked up an impressive total of frequent testifier miles on Capitol Hill. This time the Senate Commerce Committee wants him to discuss distracted driving.
The title of the session is “Combating Distracted Driving: Managing Behavioral and Technological Risks,” and its on the schedule for Wednesday 10/28/09 at 2:30PM.
The only other witness is Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
RBR-TVBR observation: The push-button preset scheme built into most automobile radio receivers is designed perfectly to allow a driver to forage for content while keeping eyes strictly on the road. The alternatives do not tend to be so perfect.
We’ve seen people working on laptops while driving on major interstates, and some of the in-vehicle television sets we’ve seen appear to be driver-visible. We hate sharing the road with cell-phone yakkers, and dread the day that television screens will be ubiquitous on those devices. It’s also no fun being near a driver who is fumbling around with old tech devices like CDs.
We suspect radio will come out of this hearing unblemished while the distraction de jour, texting, gets a heaping helping of senatorial focus.
