A Short-Circuit to Distracted Driving

Cellular carriers, having spent years trying to blanket the nation with phone service, are now working on ways to stop people from getting calls and texts when they are behind the wheel. The technology is aimed at curbing dangerous distractions by temporarily interrupting service, short-circuiting the temptation for people to respond to the chime of their phones.

T-Mobile announced a service this week that, for $4.99 a month, automatically disables rings and alerts and sends calls to voice mail when the phone is in a moving car. Sprint Nextel and AT&T said they were exploring the technology, while Verizon Wireless has been cooperating with small companies to offer a similar service on its network. The services being tested and deployed are voluntary and can be overridden if a driver needs to use the phone for an emergency. They face real challenges in that the technology, for now, cannot distinguish whether a phone belongs to a driver or a passenger — or, for that matter, a bus rider. Some safety advocates said it was not clear how widely consumers would adopt such technologies or whether they could work effectively. Many cellphone applications already are available from independent companies that claim to shut down a smartphone when it is moving quickly, but they have received tepid reviews from consumers and researchers. Still, the safety advocates said the move by the major carriers to get involved is a critical, if overdue, step against distracted driving. They say that the carriers, by testing this technology, integrating it into their phones and putting their marketing muscle behind it, could be forceful allies in a fight to help people resist what they say is the compulsive lure of mobile devices.