| 193 New mobile phone law From 1st December 2003 a new law is coming out in the UK that will make it a specific offence to hold and use a mobile phone whilst driving. This is in addition to the current laws governing safe driving. (Oct 03) Probably many V8 enthusiasts will welcome this move as we all see so many cases of people driving cars holding phones to their ears both in urban areas and on major roads and motorways - just how they can believe they have proper control of their vehicle is not clear. But if you still want to keep in touch when you are out and about in your car, there is a choice of solutions available to suit your needs and budget - what are the options? Keep your hands free for driving! That has to be the approach. Hands free kits have a fixed cradle for your mobile phone, a microphone to talk into, and speakers so you can hear the caller clearly. In addition hands free kits charge your phone battery whilst you are driving. Vodafone, like most of the mobile phone equipment and service providers, are offering two types of hands free kit - either "install yourself" kits or "professionally installed" systems. In Vodafone's latest leaflet they suggest three kits. Compact car kit at £19.99 (RRP) which is made for specific phones and is available for most popular models. You can fit the holder to your dashboard or air vents and plug the speaker and microphone into you car cigar lighter. Mr Handsfree Car Kit at £39.99 (RRP). With this kit, you fix the speaker into the footwell and can position the separate microphone near your mouth. This arrangement is said to offer high quality sound. The kit comes with a separate cable for your phone and if you change your phone at any time in the future, you simply change cables and continue using the same car kit. The Bury Universal at £169.99 (RRP) which is a small and sophisticated kit, and the price includes professional installation by an engineer. If you change your phone, you only need to change the cradle - the rest of the kit stays in place. You can see more information on these hands free kits at the Vodafone website. Safety concern remains. Whatever kit you decide to go for - and possibly some V8 enthusiasts will decide not to have their mobile phone switched on in their V8 as they will be enjoying their driving so much - there are still two factors to bear in mind. First the you have to dial the call and then you have to listen and in most cases conduct a conversation. |
 Vodafone's brochure brings this new motoring law to our attention! > Finding, entering and dialing a number Certainly moving your eyes over to the small keyboard of a mobile phone and carefully pressing the keys - or searching for a preset number - will require you to take your eyes off the road. Some will find this more distracting than others. An alternative on some mobiles is voice recognition but whether the background noise in a car will mask your voice for recognition purposes is an issue members who have experience of using this technology may be able to comment on. > Conducting the conversation This can require various levels of concentration and may cause varying degrees of tension for the driver. I am not sure I would want to conduct a business call involving serious issues or elements of negotiation whilst driving at the same time! So ultimately the control of your car is your responsibility. If you decide you need to make calls in your car, then one of the handsfree kits will be your choice. But even with a handsfree kit installed, some care will be needed over making the call and deciding whether certain calls might be better made when parked up! What is certainly clear is that hand held calls from a car on the move are very unwise. Members' comments on available hands free in car kits and their performance, safety and convenience will be very welcome so we can assemble a survey for the benefit of other members. You can send your comments to the V8 Webmaster or post them on the V8 Bulletin Board. The price of these kits will almost certainly fall - we will try and provide updates as new kits appear. |
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Update:
Inevitably handsfree kits for mobile phones have moved on since October
2003. See our recent recommended best buy. More
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most recent update is Mobile10
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