By now thanks to all the PSAs, warnings, and also reports of people getting into accidents while driving because they were using their phones and not paying attention to the road, you would hope that drivers would stop using their devices as they drive. Unfortunately the sad reality is that many people still drive and text.
So much so that even handset makers had to step in to try and get people to stop, such as Google introducing a driving DND mode to its Pixel 2 handsets. As the name suggests, this automatically puts your phone into DND mode while driving, so that drivers do not get distracted by calls or messages, and now according to Google, they will be opening up that feature to third-party developers.
According to Google, “Early next year we are introducing the Activity Recognition Transition Api, which is the same Api used by Driving Do Not Disturb to build distraction-free driving experiences.” Details are a bit scarce at the moment, but basically Google is opening up the API to allow third-party developers to come up with their own solution to help prevent distracted driving.
We’re not 100% sure what will come from this, but at the same time we welcome the idea of having more safety features/apps for our phones that could help prevent unnecessary accidents.