Will cellphone companies be sued, Big Tobacco-style, over danger of using a phone while driving?
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A 1984 magazine ad for Western Union Cellular Mobile Phone (image: The New York Times ) A few days ago, The New York Times ran a fascinating article on the history of the cellphone and how wireless companies were aware from the beginning that driving while talking on the phone was distracting and even dangerous. Nowadays, the companies are (usually) more careful in their advertising when it comes to promoting car-talking. And everyone is knows that texting while behind the wheel is a no-no. But that wasn’t what cell companies were telling their customers in the early years of the mobile phone: Long before cellphones became common, industry pioneers were aware of the risks of multitasking behind the wheel. Their hunches have been validated by many scientific studies showing the dangers of talking while driving and, more recently, of texting. Despite the mounting evidence, the industry built itself into a $150 billion business in the United States largely by winning over a crucial customer: the driver. For years, it has marketed the virtues of cellphones to drivers. Indeed, the industry originally called them car phones and extolled them as useful status symbols in ads, like one from 1984 showing an executive behind the wheel that asked: “Can your secretary take dictation at 55 MPH?” “That was the business,” said Kevin Roe, a telecommunications industry analyst since 1993. Wireless companies “designed everything to keep people talking in their cars.” And here’s where the lawsuits could come in: Researchers at Harvard have estimated that, even seven years ago, drivers using cellphones were causing 2,600 fatal crashes a year in the United States and 570,000 accidents that resulted in a range of injuries, from minor to serious. Frankly, I’m surprised the swarms of lawyers who gorged on the tobacco companies haven’t already zoomed in for the kill with cellphone companies. Heck, the Times story is practically a sequel to The Insider , including a skeptical GTE researcher who was intimidated by his boss: One researcher who spoke up about his concerns was quickly shut down. In 1990, David Strayer, a junior researcher at GTE, which later became part of Verizon, noticed more drivers who seemed to be distracted by their phones, and it scared him. He asked a supervisor if the company should research the risks. “Why would we want to know that?” Mr. Strayer recalled being told. He said the message was clear: “Learning about distraction would not be very helpful to the overall business model.”
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Will cellphone companies be sued, Big Tobacco-style, over danger of using a phone while driving?
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Tags: advertising, cellular, cellular-mobile, companies, crashes, history, hunches, legal, phone, phones, result, risks, tobacco, united-states, Windows 7
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