Prototyping a Semi-Automatic In-Car Texting Assistant

Texting while driving is dangerous and illegal in most countries. But both social as well as business forces led to a widespread ignorance of those bans and in turn to a potential lethal situation. We argue that, in addition to legislative regulations, in-car texting should be made less distracting and dangerous. We offer a solution for one specific communication goal, namely staying connected to a social network. We propose a semi-automatic status-posting system and present a prototype based on a Pleo. We argue that our approach should be extended by automated answering mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to foster discussion on texting while driving. The solution for one type of semi-atomatic texting is outlined, other types of texting need to be looked at separately. Author