Yesterday, just as ZoomSafer was releasing our new Bluetooth Beta software, there was other news in the business world about distracted driving and Bluetooth car kits; Ford announced that the next release of their Ford SYNC car kit will have a "Do Not Disturb" button which, when pressed, will block all incoming calls, text messages, typing on the keypad and will narrow some other features like navigation. To which my first response would have to be... "wait, the Ford SYNC software has features that call for a driver to be typing on a keypad?!"

That point aside, this is a pretty obvious example of Ford attempting to respond to public pressure against distracted driving by releasing a feature that seems to at least take a step in the right direction towards making our roads safer. And it IS a step in the right direction, don't get me wrong. It's obviously much better than the lobbyist industry's response to the rising anti-distracted driving sentiment anyway.

But there's a serious flaw here, and its what reduces this new feature from what could have been a real step forward in the fight to prevent distracted driving, to more of a PR stunt to get some friendly media coverage. I've written before about the evidence that employees won't voluntarily stop texting while driving, and unfortunately this "Do Not Disturb" feature does nothing to address that; it still depends on the user "opting in."

The truth is, this won't happen. The best employers can do is put in paper policies to require that this feature be activated, and there's plenty of evidence that this is not enough to reduce their liability. Without a way to automatically put Ford SYNC in "Do Not Disturb" mode or a reporting feature to check that employees are doing it manually, this feature is not going to do anything to enforce employer's distracted driving policies.

Both automation and reporting are built into Fleetsafer, ZoomSafer's enterprise product that can effectively enforce the policy decisions of an employer or fleet manager who wants their employees to be safe and reliable on the road. And as we work to perfect the Beta software that was released yesterday, we'll soon have a stable product that triggers off the Ford SYNC software as well (in the meantime check out the free Beta!)

So if you want to impress people and ride the PR wave of anti-distracted driving, be sure to outfit your employees with the new Ford SYNC coming out next year. But if you actually want to reduce your liability and save your company from all the troubles associated with distracted driving, you might want to consider something a little more enforceable.